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Fencer Intel
medium 5.0

CVE-2014-3538 json

file before 5.19 does not properly restrict the amount of data read during a regex search, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial…

published 2014-07-03 12 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2014-3533

cvss
5.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
11.8%
EPSS 11.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

file before 5.19 does not properly restrict the amount of data read during a regex search, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a crafted file that triggers backtracking during processing of an awk rule. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2013-7345.

Patch / fix

  • php php 5.4.32, 5.5.16
  • file Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:5.19-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2014-3538

  • file Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:5.14-2ubuntu3.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2014-3538

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • file RHEL 6 5.04-30.el6
  • file-libs RHEL 6 5.04-30.el6
  • python-magic RHEL 6 5.04-30.el6
  • file RHEL 7 5.11-31.el7
  • file-libs RHEL 7 5.11-31.el7
  • python-magic RHEL 7 5.11-31.el7
  • php RHEL 7 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1
  • php-gd RHEL 7 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:0760RHSA-2015:2155RHSA-2014:1327RHSA-2014:1766RHSA-2014:1765

  • php7 openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.0.14-1.4
  • php5 openSUSE Tumbleweed 5.6.28-1.1
  • php8 openSUSE Tumbleweed 8.0.11-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10290-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10344-1openSUSE-SU-2024:11169-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2014-3538 updated cvss 4.3

file: unrestricted regular expression matching

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) file 5.11-31.el7, file-libs 5.11-31.el7, python-magic 5.11-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2155
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) php 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-gd 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-cli 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-dba 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-fpm 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-pdo 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, +18 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1327
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) file 5.11-31.el7, file-libs 5.11-31.el7, python-magic 5.11-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:2155
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) php 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-gd 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-cli 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-dba 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-fpm 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-pdo 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, +18 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1327
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) file 5.04-30.el6, file-libs 5.04-30.el6, python-magic 5.04-30.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) file-devel 5.04-30.el6, file-static 5.04-30.el6, file-debuginfo 5.04-30.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) file 5.04-30.el6, file-libs 5.04-30.el6, python-magic 5.04-30.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) file-devel 5.04-30.el6, file-static 5.04-30.el6, file-debuginfo 5.04-30.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) file 5.04-30.el6, file-libs 5.04-30.el6, python-magic 5.04-30.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:0760
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) file 5.11-31.el7, file-libs 5.11-31.el7, php 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-gd 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, python-magic 5.11-31.el7, php-cli 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, +11 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1327
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) file-static 5.04-30.el6, file-debuginfo 5.04-30.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:0760
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) php-dba 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-fpm 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-intl 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-snmp 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-bcmath 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-pspell 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1327
show 6 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) file 5.04-30.el6, file-libs 5.04-30.el6, python-magic 5.04-30.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:0760
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) file 5.11-31.el7, file-libs 5.11-31.el7, php 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-gd 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, python-magic 5.11-31.el7, php-cli 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, +11 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1327
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) file-static 5.04-30.el6, file-debuginfo 5.04-30.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:0760
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) php-dba 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-fpm 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-intl 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-snmp 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-bcmath 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, php-pspell 5.4.16-23.el7_0.1, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1327
  • Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) php55-php 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-gd 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php-gd 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-cli 5.5.6-13.el6, php55-php-dba 5.5.6-13.el6, +44 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) php55-php 5.5.6-13.el7, php54-php 5.4.16-22.el7, php55-php-gd 5.5.6-13.el7, php54-php-gd 5.4.16-22.el7, php55-php-cli 5.5.6-13.el7, php55-php-dba 5.5.6-13.el7, +40 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.4) php55-php 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-gd 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php-gd 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-cli 5.5.6-13.el6, php55-php-dba 5.5.6-13.el6, +44 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.5) php55-php 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-gd 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php-gd 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-cli 5.5.6-13.el6, php55-php-dba 5.5.6-13.el6, +44 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.6) php55-php 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-gd 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php-gd 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-cli 5.5.6-13.el6, php55-php-dba 5.5.6-13.el6, +44 more Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) php55-php 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-gd 5.5.6-13.el6, php54-php-gd 5.4.16-22.el6, php55-php-cli 5.5.6-13.el6, php55-php-dba 5.5.6-13.el6, +44 more
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections 1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) php55-php 5.5.6-13.el7, php54-php 5.4.16-22.el7, php55-php-gd 5.5.6-13.el7, php54-php-gd 5.4.16-22.el7, php55-php-cli 5.5.6-13.el7, php55-php-dba 5.5.6-13.el7, +40 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:1765
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 php, rpm, file, php53, cdrtools Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 php, php-gd, php-cli, php-dba, php-fpm, php-pdo, +20 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

11.81% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/file/file/commit/74cafd7de9ec99a14f4480927580e501c8f852c3 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/file/file/commit/71a8b6c0d758acb0f73e2e51421a711b5e9d6668 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/file/file/commit/4a284c89d6ef11aca34da65da7d673050a5ea320 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/file/file/commit/758e066df72fb1ac08d2eea91ddc3973d259e991 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-399 Resource Management Errors
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.