CVE-2026-17591

Received Received - Intake

Use-After-Free in libarchive Library

Publication date: 2026-10-16

Last updated on: 2026-10-16

Assigner: redhat-SADP

Description

A flaw was found in libarchive. An attacker can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) or potential information disclosure due to a use-after-free vulnerability, which occurs when a program reads memory that has already been released. This issue arises when the archive_entry_copy_mac_metadata() function deallocates an internal buffer before completing a data copy. An attacker who can supply input to an application utilizing this function can trigger the flaw to crash the application or read uninitialized memory data.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-10-16

Last Modified

2026-10-16

Generated

2026-10-17

AI Q&A

2026-10-17

EPSS Evaluated

N/A

NVD

CVE-2026-17591

EUVD

EUVD-2026-103190

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
Red	Hat	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 *
Red	Hat	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 *
Red	Hat	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 *
Red	Hat	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 *
Red	Hat	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 *
Red	Hat	Red Hat Hardened Images *

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-416	The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This is a use-after-free vulnerability in libarchive. It occurs when the archive_entry_copy_mac_metadata() function frees an internal buffer before completing a data copy. This can cause a program to crash or read uninitialized memory if an attacker provides malicious input.

Detection Guidance

Detection of this vulnerability requires checking for applications using vulnerable versions of libarchive. Inspect installed packages for libarchive versions prior to the patched release. Use commands like 'rpm -qa | grep libarchive' on Red Hat systems or 'dpkg -l | grep libarchive' on Debian-based systems to identify affected versions.

Impact Analysis

An attacker could exploit this flaw to crash applications using libarchive, leading to Denial of Service. They might also read uninitialized memory, potentially exposing sensitive data.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could potentially impact compliance with GDPR and HIPAA by enabling information disclosure through uninitialized memory reads. If exploited, it may lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, violating confidentiality requirements under these regulations.

Mitigation Strategies

Update libarchive to the latest patched version to address the use-after-free flaw in archive_entry_copy_mac_metadata(). Apply vendor patches for Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6 through 10 and Hardened Images.

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