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CVE-2021-37619
NixOS vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

CVE-2021-37619 affects Exiv2, a command-line utility and C++ library for reading, writing, deleting, and modifying image file metadata, in versions v0.27.4 and earlier. The vulnerability was discovered and disclosed in August 2021, with a fix released in version v0.27.5 (GitHub Advisory).

Technical details

The vulnerability is an out-of-bounds read in the Exiv2::Jp2Image::encodeJp2Header function. The issue stems from an incorrect loop condition where bWroteColor becomes true and can never revert back to false, potentially leading to an infinite loop that can only terminate by throwing an exception or crashing (GitHub PR). The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.7 MEDIUM (Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) (NVD).

Impact

The vulnerability can be exploited to cause a denial of service by crashing Exiv2 if an attacker can trick the victim into running Exiv2 on a crafted image file. The bug is only triggered when writing metadata, which is a less frequently used operation than reading metadata (GitHub Advisory).

Exploitability

The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction, as it needs the victim to run Exiv2 with specific command-line arguments (such as 'insert') on a maliciously crafted image file (GitHub Advisory).

Mitigation and workarounds

The vulnerability has been fixed in Exiv2 version v0.27.5. Users should upgrade to this version or later to mitigate the issue. The fix involves correcting the loop condition in the Jp2Image::encodeJp2Header function (GitHub PR).

Additional resources

Linux Distribution fix status

Fix availability across major Linux distributions and their releases.

Alpine

Fixed

edge

exiv2: 0.27.5-r0

Fixed

v3.18

exiv2: 0.27.5-r0

Fixed

v3.19

exiv2: 0.27.5-r0

Fixed

v3.20

exiv2: 0.27.5-r0

Fixed

v3.21

exiv2: 0.27.5-r0

Fixed

v3.22

exiv2: 0.27.5-r0

Fixed

v3.23

exiv2: 0.27.5-r0

Fixed

Arch Linux

Fixed

rolling

exiv2: 0.27.5-1

Fixed

SourceThis report was generated using AI

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