file: Denial of service

Background

file is a utility that guesses a file format by scanning binary data for patterns.

Description

File does not properly utilize the do_core_note function in readelf.c in libmagic.a.

Impact

A remote attacker could send a specially crafted ELF file possibly resulting in a Denial of Service condition.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All file users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/file-5.33-r2"