CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-1000878 — Libarchive Libarchive security vulnerability

High CVSS 8.8

libarchive version commit 416694915449219d505531b1096384f3237dd6cc onwards (release v3.1.0 onwards) contains a CWE-416: Use After Free vulnerability in RAR decoder - libarchive/archive_read_support_format_rar.c that can result in Crash/DoS - it is unknown if RCE is possible. This attack appear to be exploitable via the victim must open a specially crafted RAR archive.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.8 (3.1)
Published
2018-12-20
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-416

Affected products

  • libarchive / libarchive
  • debian / debian_linux / 8.0
  • debian / debian_linux / 9.0
  • canonical / ubuntu_linux / 14.04
  • canonical / ubuntu_linux / 16.04
  • canonical / ubuntu_linux / 18.04

Showing 6 representative product identities from 14 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Use-after-free, double free, and expired resource use

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace ownership, references, callbacks, asynchronous tasks, and teardown paths around the affected object or resource.
  • Identify reachable inputs and timing or state transitions that can release the object while references remain.
  • Confirm affected builds, allocators, feature flags, architectures, and process privileges.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained ownership or lifetime fix and rebuild all artifacts containing the affected native code.
  • Use explicit ownership, safe reference management, cancellation and join semantics, and idempotent teardown.
  • Add deterministic lifetime tests plus isolated sanitizer and concurrency coverage for shutdown and error paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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