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CVE-2023-42503

Apache Commons Compress: Denial of service via CPU consumption for malformed TAR file

5.5 MediumFix available

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue.

A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption.

In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 1). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period 2, indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values.

Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal 3 class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 4). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 5.

Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
Required

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

0.60%Up 0.6 points since Sep 14, 2023
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 5.5

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue.

A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption.

In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 1). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period 2, indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values.

Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal 3 class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 4). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 5.

Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
CVE-2023-42503
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-20, CWE-400
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

Apache Commons Compress: Denial of service via CPU consumption for malformed TAR file

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue.

A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption.

In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 1). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period 2, indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values.

Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal 3 class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 4). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 5.

Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
CVE-2023-42503
Weakness
CWE-20, CWE-400
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2023-2489 No score

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue.

A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption.

In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 1). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period 2, indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values.

Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal 3 class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 4). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 5.

Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
EUVD-2023-2489
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-cgwf-w82q-5jrr 5.5

Apache Commons Compress denial of service vulnerability

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue.

A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption.

In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 1). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period 2, indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values.

Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal 3 class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 4). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 5.

Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
GHSA-cgwf-w82q-5jrr
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-20, CWE-400
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2023-42503 5.5

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue. A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption. In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 [1]). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period [2], indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values. Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal [3] class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 [4]). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 [5]. [1]: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COMPRESS-612 [2]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/pax.html#tag_20_92_13_05 [3]: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/math/BigDecimal.html [4]: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-6560193 [5]: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2012-2098 Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2023-42503
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-cgwf-w82q-5jrr 5.5

Apache Commons Compress denial of service vulnerability

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue.

A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption.

In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 1). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period 2, indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values.

Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal 3 class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 4). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 5.

Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
GHSA-cgwf-w82q-5jrr
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-20, CWE-400
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVROOT-APP-MAVEN-CVE-2023-42503 5.5

CVE-2023-42503 in io.root.org.apache.commons:commons-compress - Patched by Root

Root has patched CVE-2023-42503 in the io.root.org.apache.commons:commons-compress package for Root:Maven. Multiple fixed versions available.

Record
ROOT-APP-MAVEN-CVE-2023-42503
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2023-42503 5.5

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue. A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption. In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 [1]). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period [2], indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values. Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal [3] class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 [4]). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 [5]. [1]: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COMPRESS-612 [2]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/pax.html#tag_20_92_13_05 [3]: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/math/BigDecimal.html [4]: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-6560193 [5]: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2012-2098 Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2023-42503
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV No score

Apache Commons Compress: Denial of service via CPU consumption for malformed TAR file

Improper Input Validation, Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in Apache Commons Compress in TAR parsing.This issue affects Apache Commons Compress: from 1.22 before 1.24.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.24.0, which fixes the issue.

A third party can create a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed with Apache Commons Compress, will cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption.

In version 1.22 of Apache Commons Compress, support was added for file modification times with higher precision (issue # COMPRESS-612 1). The format for the PAX extended headers carrying this data consists of two numbers separated by a period 2, indicating seconds and subsecond precision (for example “1647221103.5998539”). The impacted fields are “atime”, “ctime”, “mtime” and “LIBARCHIVE.creationtime”. No input validation is performed prior to the parsing of header values.

Parsing of these numbers uses the BigDecimal 3 class from the JDK which has a publicly known algorithmic complexity issue when doing operations on large numbers, causing denial of service (see issue # JDK-6560193 4). A third party can manipulate file time headers in a TAR file by placing a number with a very long fraction (300,000 digits) or a number with exponent notation (such as “9e9999999”) within a file modification time header, and the parsing of files with these headers will take hours instead of seconds, leading to a denial of service via exhaustion of CPU resources. This issue is similar to CVE-2012-2098 5.

Only applications using CompressorStreamFactory class (with auto-detection of file types), TarArchiveInputStream and TarFile classes to parse TAR files are impacted. Since this code was introduced in v1.22, only that version and later versions are impacted.

Record
CVE-2023-42503
Weakness
CWE-20, CWE-400
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
org.apache.commons:commons-compress
Maven
1.22 up to 1.24.0
1.24.0
libcommons-compress-java
Debian:12
All versions, plus listed versions
1.22-11.23.0-11.24.0-11.25.0-11.27.1-11.27.1-21.28.0-1
None known
libcommons-compress-java
Debian:13
before 1.24.0-1
1.24.0-1
libcommons-compress-java
Debian:14
before 1.24.0-1
1.24.0-1
org.apache.commons:commons-compress
Maven
1.22 up to 1.24.0, plus listed versions
1.23.0
1.24.0
io.root.org.apache.commons:commons-compress
Root:Maven
before 1.22-root.io.1
1.22-root.io.11.22-root.io.21.24.0-root.io.11.24.0-root.io.2
org.apache.commons:commons-compress
Root:Maven
before 1.22-aikido.1
1.22-aikido.11.24.0-aikido.2
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.9-11.10-11.10-2
None known
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.13-11.13-21.18-1~18.04
None known
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.18-31.19-1
None known
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Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.20-11.21-1
None known
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.23.0-11.24.0-11.25.0-1
None known
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:25.10
All versions, plus listed versions
1.27.1-2
None known
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:26.10
All versions, plus listed versions
1.27.1-2
None known
libcommons-compress-java
Ubuntu:26.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.27.1-2
None known

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliases, publishedEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2023-42503 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.5) in Apache Commons Compress, published September 14, 2023. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.60%, the 49th percentile. Fixed in org.apache.commons:commons-compress 1.24.0.

References

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