CVE-2025-60753
Description
A vulnerability in apply_substitution() function in libarchive's bsdtar allows crafted -s substitution rules to repeatedly match a zero-length substring and append replacements without advancing the input pointer. When the rule uses the global /g flag (or an explicitly empty pattern), this leads to unbounded output allocation and eventual process OOM (Denial of Service). Upgrade to libarchive 3.8.1 or apply a patch that prevents zero-length match loops or rejects empty patterns.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated Moderate rather than Important because its impact is limited to availability and requires user interaction under specific, non-default conditions. Exploitation is only possible when an attacker can directly supply or influence the -s substitution rule passed to bsdtar, which is uncommon in most deployment scenarios since bsdtar is typically invoked with trusted command-line arguments in controlled environments. The flaw does not enable memory corruption, arbitrary code execution, or privilege escalation—it solely results in an infinite loop and memory exhaustion (OOM) leading to a process crash.
Mitigation
No mitigation is currently available that meets Red Hat Product Security’s standards for usability, deployment, applicability, or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.5 | N/A | 5.5 |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | Required | N/A | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Amplification
An infinite loop will cause unexpected consumption of resources, such as CPU cycles or memory. The software's operation may slow down, or cause a long time to respond.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
