CVE-2020-36152
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2020-36152 is a buffer overflow vulnerability in the readDataVar function of libmysofa's hdf/dataobject.c. Attackers can exploit this by providing a specially crafted SOFA file to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. This affects applications using libmysofa versions 0.5 through 1.1 for SOFA file processing.
💻 Affected Systems
- Symonics libmysofa
📦 What is this software?
Fedora by Fedoraproject
Libmysofa by Symonics
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution with the privileges of the application using libmysofa, potentially leading to full system compromise.
Likely Case
Application crash (denial of service) or limited code execution depending on exploit sophistication and application context.
If Mitigated
Application crash with no code execution if exploit fails or mitigations like ASLR/stack canaries are effective.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires the attacker to provide a malicious SOFA file to the vulnerable application.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: libmysofa 1.2 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/hoene/libmysofa/issues/136
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update libmysofa to version 1.2 or later. 2. Rebuild or restart applications using libmysofa. 3. For Linux distributions, use package manager updates (e.g., apt upgrade libmysofa).
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable SOFA file processing
allTemporarily disable or block SOFA file processing in applications until patched.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict input validation for SOFA files to reject malformed inputs.
- Run applications using libmysofa with reduced privileges or in sandboxed environments.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check libmysofa version: dpkg -l | grep libmysofa (Debian/Ubuntu) or rpm -qa | grep libmysofa (RHEL/Fedora).Check Version:
dpkg -l | grep libmysofa # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep libmysofa # RHEL/FedoraVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm libmysofa version is 1.2 or later using the same commands.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Application crashes or abnormal terminations when processing SOFA files.
- Unexpected process spawns from applications using libmysofa.
Network Indicators:
- Inbound transfers of SOFA files to vulnerable applications.
SIEM Query:
source="application_logs" AND (event="crash" OR event="segfault") AND process="*libmysofa*"🔗 References
- https://github.com/hoene/libmysofa/issues/136
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RQLNZOVVONQSZZJHQVZT6NMOUUDMGBBR/
- https://github.com/hoene/libmysofa/issues/136
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RQLNZOVVONQSZZJHQVZT6NMOUUDMGBBR/
