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Fencer Intel
medium 6.5

CVE-2015-8916 json

bsdtar in libarchive before 3.2.0 returns a success code without filling the entry when the header is a "split file in multivolume RAR," wh…

published 2016-09-20 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-8772

cvss
6.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.2%
EPSS 3.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 88%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

bsdtar in libarchive before 3.2.0 returns a success code without filling the entry when the header is a "split file in multivolume RAR," which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and crash) via a crafted rar file.

Patch / fix

  • libarchive Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.2.0-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8916

  • libarchive Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.1.2-7ubuntu2.3
  • libarchive Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 3.1.2-11ubuntu0.16.04.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8916

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

  • libarchive RHEL 7 3.1.2-10.el7_2
  • bsdtar RHEL 7 3.1.2-10.el7_2
  • bsdcpio RHEL 7 3.1.2-10.el7_2

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:1844

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-2015-8916 updated cvss 3.7

libarchive: NULL pointer access in RAR parser through bsdtar

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libarchive 3.1.2-10.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) bsdtar 3.1.2-10.el7_2, bsdcpio 3.1.2-10.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libarchive 3.1.2-10.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) bsdtar 3.1.2-10.el7_2, bsdcpio 3.1.2-10.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libarchive 3.1.2-10.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) bsdtar 3.1.2-10.el7_2, bsdcpio 3.1.2-10.el7_2
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libarchive 3.1.2-10.el7_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) bsdtar 3.1.2-10.el7_2, bsdcpio 3.1.2-10.el7_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1844
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libarchive
    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

3.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 88% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 6.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness

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.