Unbounded memory consumption when reading headers in archive/tar

HIGH 7.5CVE-2022-2879 · BIT-golang-2022-2879 · GO-2022-1037 · Published 14/10/2022 · updated 17/06/2026

In short

CVE-2022-2879 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability affecting stdlib, go (golang).
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS): 2.0%, higher than 80.8% of all vulnerabilities.
Fix: update to 1.19.2, 1.18.7 or later.

Package	Affected versions	Patched versions
stdlib Go	`≥ 1.19.0-0, < 1.19.2< 1.18.7`	`1.19.21.18.7`
go golang	`≥ 1.19.0, < 1.19.2< 1.18.7`	`1.19.21.18.7`

Description

Reader.Read does not set a limit on the maximum size of file headers. A maliciously crafted archive could cause Read to allocate unbounded amounts of memory, potentially causing resource exhaustion or panics. After fix, Reader.Read limits the maximum size of header blocks to 1 MiB.

NVD description

References

go.dev/issue/54853 · REPORT
go.dev/cl/439355 · FIX
groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/xtuG5faxtaU · WEB
pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2022-1037 · Vendor Advisory
security.gentoo.org/glsa/202311-09

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Package

Affected versions

Patched versions

stdlib

≥ 1.19.0-0, < 1.19.2< 1.18.7

1.19.21.18.7

golang

≥ 1.19.0, < 1.19.2< 1.18.7

1.19.21.18.7

Description

NVD description

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