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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2017-13756

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2017-08-29
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges

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 · unedited
In The Sleuth Kit (TSK) 4.4.2, opening a crafted disk image triggers infinite recursion in dos_load_ext_table() in tsk/vs/dos.c in libtskvs.a, as demonstrated by mmls.

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 confidence

Opening a maliciously crafted disk image triggers infinite recursion in the dos_load_ext_table() function in tsk/vs/dos.c within libtskvs.a, causing the application (e.g., mmls) to hang or crash due to stack exhaustion.

MitigationUpdate The Sleuth Kit to a version that addresses this vulnerability; avoid opening untrusted or unknown disk images until patched.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0
The Sleuth KitApplication
Affected:= 4.4.2

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Sleuth Kit is installed
    Run 'which mmls' or check for presence of Sleuth Kit binaries in /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin
    Affected if mmls or other Sleuth Kit tools are found on the system
  2. Determine installed Sleuth Kit version
    Run 'mmls -V' or 'mmls -v' to display version information
    Affected if Version shown is 4.4.2
  3. Check Debian package version if installed via apt
    Run 'dpkg -l | grep sleuthkit' or 'apt-cache policy sleuthkit' on Debian systems
    Affected if Installed package version is 4.4.2-1 or lower on Debian 9.0
  4. Identify if untrusted disk images are processed
    Review system usage patterns to determine if mmls or other TSK tools are used to examine disk images from untrusted sources
    Affected if Users process disk images from untrusted or unknown sources using Sleuth Kit tools

The system is affected if Sleuth Kit version 4.4.2 is installed and used to examine disk images, as this version contains the vulnerable dos_load_ext_table() function susceptible to infinite recursion.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update The Sleuth Kit to a version that addresses this vulnerability; avoid opening untrusted or unknown disk images until patched.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-13756 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data