CVE-2006-5645
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedSophos Anti-Virus and Endpoint Security before 6.0.5, Anti-Virus for Linux before 5.0.10, and other platforms before 4.11, when "Enabled scanning of archives" is set, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via a malformed RAR archive with an Archive Header section with the head_size and pack_size fields set to zero.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceSophos Anti-Virus and Endpoint Security products before versions 6.0.5, 5.0.10, and 4.11 contain a denial of service vulnerability in the RAR archive parsing module. When archive scanning is enabled (the default configuration), processing a malformed RAR file with zero-valued head_size and pack_size fields in the Archive Header triggers an infinite loop, causing CPU exhaustion and service unavailability.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 4.04= 4.05= 4.5.3= 4.5.4= 4.5.11= 4.5.12= 4.7.1= 4.7.2= 5.0.1= 5.0.2= 5.0.4= 5.1<= 6.04CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed Sophos product and versionCheck the installed version of Sophos Anti-Virus or Endpoint Security using the system's package manager, software inventory, or the Sophos management console. For Linux systems, run 'rpm -q sophos-antivirus' or 'dpkg -l sophos-antivirus'. On Windows, check Add/Remove Programs or the Sophos endpoint console.Affected if The installed version is any of: 4.04, 4.05, 4.5.3, 4.5.4, 4.5.11, 4.5.12, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.4, 5.1 for Sophos Anti-Virus, or version 6.0.4 or earlier for Sophos Endpoint Security.
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Verify if archive scanning is enabledCheck the Sophos configuration for the 'Enabled scanning of archives' or 'Scan archives' setting. On Windows, this is found in the Sophos Endpoint Security policy under 'Scanning' > 'Archive scanning'. On Linux, check the swee.conf or sav.conf configuration files for archive scanning directives.Affected if Archive scanning is enabled (this is the default configuration and is required for the vulnerability to be exploitable).
You are affected if you are running a vulnerable Sophos version (Anti-Virus 4.04-5.1 or Endpoint Security 6.0.4 and earlier) WITH archive scanning enabled.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataMitigate by disabling the 'Enabled scanning of archives' configuration option in Sophos settings, or upgrade to the fixed versions (6.0.5 for Endpoint Security, 5.0.10 for Linux, 4.11 for other platforms).
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-5645 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2006-5645 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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