Wide-ranging 7-zip vulnerability with 8.8 CVE rating allows for code execution — hundreds of millions of machines potentially at risk

Wide-ranging 7-zip vulnerability with 8.8 CVE rating allows for code execution — hundreds of millions of machines potentially at risk

The actual vulnerability is fairly complicated to describe, but pertains to a part of code that 7-Zip can use to open NTFS disk images. Opening .ntfs and .img disk images has long been a feature of 7-Zip, and there's a bug in the code that allows an attacker to provide incorrect values for a buffer, which in turn can be made bigger than intended and contain malicious code to be executed. If by now you're thinking "I don't use those file types", 7-Zip doesn't use the file extension to determine its type — it relies on the file's first few bytes, so providing a malicious NTFS image inside a .7z, .rar, .zip (and others) will work just fine.

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Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-24/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Bruno Ferreira Social Links Navigation Contributor Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals.

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