Low [CVE-2026-15028] heap overflow OOB read while parsing a tar archive contains a PAX extended header
This low-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-15028 affecting Red Hat Hardened Images, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
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Summary
A flaw was found in libarchive. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to trigger a heap overflow by providing a specially crafted tar archive.
The issue occurs during the parsing of a PAX extended header containing a malformed SUN.holesdata sparse-file attribute. Successful exploitation could lead to a denial of service, making the system unavailable, or potentially allow for arbitrary code execution, giving the attacker control over the affected system.
Conditions for Exploitation: Successful exploitation requires user interaction or a specific application workflow.
Impact Limitations: Although the heap overflow has the potential to allow for arbitrary code execution, achieving this reliably is typically complex and highly dependent on the memory layout and protections of the specific application utilizing the library.
In most common scenarios, the malformed archive will simply cause the parsing application to crash, resulting in a localized Denial of Service (DoS) rather than a full system compromise. Red Hat severity: Low — CVSS 3.9 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L).
Weakness: CWE-805. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Hardened Images; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
Red Hat lists Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 as not affected.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 3 days ago·verify at source
- libarchive-main-3.8.8-2.1.hum1
- RHSA-2026:38279
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 3 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation checklist
- To mitigate this issue, avoid processing untrusted or unverified tar archives. Users should exercise caution when handling archives from unknown sources or those with unexpected content, as processing a specially crafted archive could trigger the vulnerability.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 3 days ago·verify at source
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