Heap-based buffer overflow in zutils zcat

[Ben Hutchings <ben () decadent org uk>]

A heap-based buffer overflow (CWE-122) was discovered in the zutils
implementation of zcat.  It is apparently possible only if the -v
option, or one of the other options that implies -v, is used.

This seems to have been first discovered in 2016 as a result of
interaction between initramfs-tools and zutils, but was initially
thought to be a bug in the gzip implementation of zcat:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/intel-microcode/+bug/1507443
https://bugs.debian.org/815915

It was eventually reported to the zutils upstream developer (Antonio
Diaz Diaz, cc'd) in the last few weeks and was fixed in version
1.8-pre2.  This was announced in:
https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/zutils-bug/2018-08/msg00000.html

I will request a CVE ID for this.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
One of the nice things about standards is that
there are so many of them.

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