CVE-2024-6232

Description

A regular expression denial of service (ReDos) vulnerability was found in Python's tarfile module. Due to excessive backtracking while tarfile parses headers, an attacker may be able to trigger a denial of service via a specially crafted tar archive.

Statement

This vulnerability is classified as moderate severity rather than important because while it does allow for a denial of service (DoS) attack via excessive backtracking in the tarfile module, it does not enable remote code execution or compromise the integrity or confidentiality of data. Exploitation requires an attacker to provide a specially crafted tar archive and relies on the victim's system processing that file, which limits the attack vector.

Versions of python36:3.6/python36 as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 are marked as 'Not affected' as they just provide "symlinks" to the main python3 component, which provides the actual interpreter of the Python programming language.

Mitigation

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base 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 HatNVDcve.org
Base Score7.57.57.5
Attack VectorNetworkNetworkNetwork
Attack ComplexityLowLowLow
Privileges RequiredNoneNoneNone
User InteractionNoneNoneNone
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedUnchanged
ConfidentialityNoneNoneNone
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneNone
Availability ImpactHighHighHigh

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)

Attackers can create crafted inputs that intentionally cause the regular expression to use excessive backtracking in a way that causes the CPU consumption to spike.

Frequently Asked Questions

Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.