CVE-2016-9841 (published 2017-05-23T04:29Z)

inffast.c in zlib 1.2.8 might allow context-dependent attackers to have unspecified impact by leveraging improper pointer arithmetic.

Severity: HIGH
CVSS v2 base score: 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P)
CVSS v3 base score: 9.8, CRITICAL (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Weakness information:
cwe_id: NVD-CWE-noinfo
cwe_name: Insufficient Information
description: There is insufficient information about the issue to classify it; details are unkown or unspecified.
extended_description: Insufficient Information

Fix information:
repo_url: https://github.com/madler/zlib
commit_details: repo_url: https://github.com/madler/zlib
author: Mark Adler
author_date: 2016-09-21 22:25:21-07:00
msg: Use post-increment only in inffast.c.

An old inffast.c optimization turns out to not be optimal anymore
with modern compilers, and furthermore was not compliant with the
C standard, for which decrementing a pointer before its allocated
memory is undefined. Per the recommendation of a security audit of
the zlib code by Trail of Bits and TrustInSoft, in support of the
Mozilla Foundation, this "optimization" was removed, in order to
avoid the possibility of undefined behavior.
repository: repo_url: https://github.com/madler/zlib
repo_name: madler/zlib
description: A massively spiffy yet delicately unobtrusive compression library.
repo_language: C
owner: madler
file_changes: filename: inffast.c
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -10,25 +10,6 @@
 
 #ifndef ASMINF
 
-/* Allow machine dependent optimization for post-increment or pre-increment.
-   Based on testing to date,
-   Pre-increment preferred for:
-   - PowerPC G3 (Adler)
-   - MIPS R5000 (Randers-Pehrson)
-   Post-increment preferred for:
-   - none
-   No measurable difference:
-   - Pentium III (Anderson)
-   - M68060 (Nikl)
- */
-#ifdef POSTINC
-#  define OFF 0
-#  define PUP(a) *(a)++
-#else
-#  define OFF 1
-#  define PUP(a) *++(a)
-#endif
-
 /*
    Decode literal, length, and distance codes and write out the resulting
    literal and match bytes until either not enough input or output is
@@ -96,9 +77,9 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
 
     /* copy state to local variables */
     state = (struct inflate_state FAR *)strm->state;
-    in = strm->next_in - OFF;
+    in = strm->next_in;
     last = in + (strm->avail_in - 5);
-    out = strm->next_out - OFF;
+    out = strm->next_out;
     beg = out - (start - strm->avail_out);
     end = out + (strm->avail_out - 257);
 #ifdef INFLATE_STRICT
@@ -119,9 +100,9 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
        input data or output space */
     do {
         if (bits < 15) {
-            hold += (unsigned long)(PUP(in)) << bits;
+            hold += (unsigned long)(*in++) << bits;
             bits += 8;
-            hold += (unsigned long)(PUP(in)) << bits;
+            hold += (unsigned long)(*in++) << bits;
             bits += 8;
         }
         here = lcode[hold & lmask];
@@ -134,14 +115,14 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
             Tracevv((stderr, here.val >= 0x20 && here.val < 0x7f ?
                     "inflate:         literal '%c'\n" :
                     "inflate:         literal 0x%02x\n", here.val));
-            PUP(out) = (unsigned char)(here.val);
+            *out++ = (unsigned char)(here.val);
         }
         else if (op & 16) {                     /* length base */
             len = (unsigned)(here.val);
             op &= 15;                           /* number of extra bits */
             if (op) {
                 if (bits < op) {
-                    hold += (unsigned long)(PUP(in)) << bits;
+                    hold += (unsigned long)(*in++) << bits;
                     bits += 8;
                 }
                 len += (unsigned)hold & ((1U << op) - 1);
@@ -150,9 +131,9 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
             }
             Tracevv((stderr, "inflate:         length %u\n", len));
             if (bits < 15) {
-                hold += (unsigned long)(PUP(in)) << bits;
+                hold += (unsigned long)(*in++) << bits;
                 bits += 8;
-                hold += (unsigned long)(PUP(in)) << bits;
+                hold += (unsigned long)(*in++) << bits;
                 bits += 8;
             }
             here = dcode[hold & dmask];
@@ -165,10 +146,10 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
                 dist = (unsigned)(here.val);
                 op &= 15;                       /* number of extra bits */
                 if (bits < op) {
-                    hold += (unsigned long)(PUP(in)) << bits;
+                    hold += (unsigned long)(*in++) << bits;
                     bits += 8;
                     if (bits < op) {
-                        hold += (unsigned long)(PUP(in)) << bits;
+                        hold += (unsigned long)(*in++) << bits;
                         bits += 8;
                     }
                 }
@@ -196,30 +177,30 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
 #ifdef INFLATE_ALLOW_INVALID_DISTANCE_TOOFAR_ARRR
                         if (len <= op - whave) {
                             do {
-                                PUP(out) = 0;
+                                *out++ = 0;
                             } while (--len);
                             continue;
                         }
                         len -= op - whave;
                         do {
-                            PUP(out) = 0;
+                            *out++ = 0;
                         } while (--op > whave);
                         if (op == 0) {
                             from = out - dist;
                             do {
-                                PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                                *out++ = *from++;
                             } while (--len);
                             continue;
                         }
 #endif
                     }
-                    from = window - OFF;
+                    from = window;
                     if (wnext == 0) {           /* very common case */
                         from += wsize - op;
                         if (op < len) {         /* some from window */
                             len -= op;
                             do {
-                                PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                                *out++ = *from++;
                             } while (--op);
                             from = out - dist;  /* rest from output */
                         }
@@ -230,14 +211,14 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
                         if (op < len) {         /* some from end of window */
                             len -= op;
                             do {
-                                PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                                *out++ = *from++;
                             } while (--op);
-                            from = window - OFF;
+                            from = window;
                             if (wnext < len) {  /* some from start of window */
                                 op = wnext;
                                 len -= op;
                                 do {
-                                    PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                                    *out++ = *from++;
                                 } while (--op);
                                 from = out - dist;      /* rest from output */
                             }
@@ -248,35 +229,35 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
                         if (op < len) {         /* some from window */
                             len -= op;
                             do {
-                                PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                                *out++ = *from++;
                             } while (--op);
                             from = out - dist;  /* rest from output */
                         }
                     }
                     while (len > 2) {
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                        *out++ = *from++;
+                        *out++ = *from++;
+                        *out++ = *from++;
                         len -= 3;
                     }
                     if (len) {
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                        *out++ = *from++;
                         if (len > 1)
-                            PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                            *out++ = *from++;
                     }
                 }
                 else {
                     from = out - dist;          /* copy direct from output */
                     do {                        /* minimum length is three */
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                        *out++ = *from++;
+                        *out++ = *from++;
+                        *out++ = *from++;
                         len -= 3;
                     } while (len > 2);
                     if (len) {
-                        PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                        *out++ = *from++;
                         if (len > 1)
-                            PUP(out) = PUP(from);
+                            *out++ = *from++;
                     }
                 }
             }
@@ -313,8 +294,8 @@ unsigned start;         /* inflate()'s starting value for strm->avail_out */
     hold &= (1U << bits) - 1;
 
     /* update state and return */
-    strm->next_in = in + OFF;
-    strm->next_out = out + OFF;
+    strm->next_in = in;
+    strm->next_out = out;
     strm->avail_in = (unsigned)(in < last ? 5 + (last - in) : 5 - (in - last));
     strm->avail_out = (unsigned)(out < end ?
                                  257 + (end - out) : 257 - (out - end));

programming_language: C