{"id":86167,"date":"2025-12-30T19:59:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:59:50","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T06:00:00","slug":"cve-2024-48615-null-pointer-dereference-vulnerability-in-libarchive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-48615-null-pointer-dereference-vulnerability-in-libarchive\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2024-48615: Null Pointer Dereference Vulnerability in libarchive<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A critical vulnerability, CVE-2024-48615, has been identified within libarchive 3.7.6 and earlier versions. This vulnerability is present in the bsdtar program, specifically within the function header_pax_extension. A Null Pointer Dereference vulnerability could potentially allow an attacker to compromise the system or cause data leakage, making it a significant threat to any system running the affected versions of libarchive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2024-48615<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS Score: 7.5)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local\/Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: Potential system compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1433933460\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>libarchive | 3.7.6 and earlier<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability arises from a Null Pointer Dereference in the function header_pax_extension within the bsdtar program. An attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted file or request that causes the function to dereference a null pointer, which could lead to unexpected behavior, including system crashes or the execution of malicious code.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-837888282\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>A conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited could involve a maliciously crafted tar archive that triggers the vulnerability when processed by bsdtar. This might look something like the following pseudocode:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">$ bsdtar -xf malicious.tar<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, &#8220;malicious.tar&#8221; is a tar archive that has been specially crafted to exploit the Null Pointer Dereference vulnerability in bsdtar. When bsdtar attempts to extract the contents of this archive, it could potentially trigger the vulnerability and cause a system crash or execute arbitrary code.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To mitigate this vulnerability, it is recommended to apply the vendor patch as soon as it is available. In the interim, the use of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) could provide temporary mitigation. Regular monitoring and auditing of system logs could also aid in the early detection of any potential exploits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview A critical vulnerability, CVE-2024-48615, has been identified within libarchive 3.7.6 and earlier versions. This vulnerability is present in the bsdtar program, specifically within the function header_pax_extension. A Null Pointer Dereference vulnerability could potentially allow an attacker to compromise the system or cause data leakage, making it a significant threat to any system running the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-86167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86167"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=86167"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=86167"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=86167"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=86167"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=86167"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=86167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}