ArchLinux: 201603-18 High: PCRE Arbitrary Code Execution Risk

Arch Linux Security Advisory ASA-201603-18
=========================================
Severity: High
Date    : 2016-03-13
CVE-ID  : CVE-2016-1283
Package : pcre
Type    : arbitrary code execution
Remote  : Yes
Link    : https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CVE

Summary
======
The package pcre before version 8.38-3 is vulnerable to arbitrary code
execution.

Resolution
=========
Upgrade to 8.38-3.

# pacman -Syu "pcre>=8.38-3"

The problem has been fixed upstream but no release is available yet.

Workaround
=========
None.

Description
==========
PCRE library is prone to a vulnerability which leads to Heap Overflow.
During the compilation of a malformed regular expression, more data is
written on the malloced block than the expected size output by
compile_regex. Exploits with advanced Heap Fengshui techniques may allow
an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the user running
the affected application.

Impact
=====
A remote attacker is able to execute arbitrary code by crafting a
special regular expression that triggers a heap buffer overflow.

References
=========
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-1283
https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1767