ClamavApplication

CVE-2019-12625

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.101.3 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
ClamAV versions prior to 0.101.3 are susceptible to a zip bomb vulnerability where an unauthenticated attacker can cause a denial of service condition by sending crafted messages to an affected system.

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

ClamAV versions prior to 0.101.3 are vulnerable to zip bomb attacks where maliciously crafted compressed files decompress to extremely large sizes, causing denial of service by exhausting system resources (memory, CPU, disk space). The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to send crafted messages that trigger this condition.

MitigationUpgrade to ClamAV version 0.101.3 or later, which includes protection mechanisms against zip bombs by implementing decompression ratio limits and recursion depth controls.

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
ClamavApplication
Affected:< 0.101.3

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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 ClamAV is installed
    Run 'which clamscan' or 'which clamd' to locate the ClamAV binaries, or check your package manager for installed clamav packages
    Affected if ClamAV binaries are not found on the system
  2. Determine installed ClamAV version
    Run 'clamscan --version' or 'clamd --version' to display the exact version number of the installed ClamAV engine
    Affected if Command fails or returns no version
  3. Compare version to affected range
    Compare the installed version number to 0.101.3 - versions less than 0.101.3 (such as 0.101.2, 0.101.1, 0.100.x, 0.99.x) are vulnerable
    Affected if Installed version is lower than 0.101.3 (e.g., 0.101.2, 0.100.3, 0.100.0, 0.99.5)
  4. Check if ClamAV is used to scan archives
    Review configuration files (clamd.conf, freshclam.conf) in /etc/clamav/ or review scan policies to confirm ClamAV is configured to scan compressed archives
    Affected if ClamAV is actively used to scan archive files (zip, rar, 7z, tar)

You are affected if ClamAV is installed with a version lower than 0.101.3 and is used to scan archive files, as this allows zip bomb attacks to exhaust system resources.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.101.3 or later
Fixed in 0.101.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to ClamAV version 0.101.3 or later, which includes protection mechanisms against zip bombs by implementing decompression ratio limits and recursion depth controls.

Fix this in Clamav Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-12625 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-12625 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