ArchLinux: 202403-1: xz: arbitrary code execution
Summary
Malicious code was discovered in the upstream tarballs of xz, starting
with version 5.6.0. The tarballs included extra .m4 files, which
contained instructions for building with automake that did not exist in
the repository. These instructions, through a series of complex
obfuscations, extract a prebuilt object file from one of the test
archives, which is then used to modify specific functions in the code
while building the liblzma package. This issue results in liblzma being
used by additional software, like sshd, to provide functionality that
will be interpreted by the modified functions.
Resolution
Upgrade to 5.6.1-2.
# pacman -Syu "xz>=5.6.1-2"
The problem has been fixed upstream in version 5.6.1.
References
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/urgent-security-alert-fedora-41-and-rawhide-users https://security.archlinux.org/CVE-2024-3094
Workaround
None.