Description
Malicious code was discovered in the upstream tarballs of xz, starting with version 5.6.0. Through a series of complex obfuscations, the liblzma build process extracts a prebuilt object file from a disguised test file existing in the source code, which is then used to modify specific functions in the liblzma code. This results in a modified liblzma library that can be used by any software linked against this library, intercepting and modifying the data interaction with this library.
Metrics
CVSS 3.1 10.0/10
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HWeakness enumeration
Affected software
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | 5.6.0; 5.6.1 |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8 | — |
References
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-3094Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2272210Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4Mailing List
- https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/urgent-security-alert-fedora-41-and-rawhide-usersVendor Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/10
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/12
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/5
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/8
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/30/12
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/30/27
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/30/36
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/30/5
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/04/16/5
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-3094Vendor Advisory
- https://ariadne.space/2024/04/02/the-xz-utils-backdoor-is-a-symptom-of-a-larger-problem/
- https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/backdoor-found-in-widely-used-linux-utility-breaks-encrypted-ssh-connections/Third Party Advisory
- https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/AWS-2024-002/Third Party Advisory
- https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/statement_on_backdoor_in_xz
- https://boehs.org/node/everything-i-know-about-the-xz-backdoorThird Party Advisory
- https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1068024Mailing List, Vendor Advisory
- https://bugs.gentoo.org/928134Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2272210Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1222124Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://discourse.nixos.org/t/cve-2024-3094-malicious-code-in-xz-5-6-0-and-5-6-1-tarballs/42405Third Party Advisory
- https://gist.github.com/thesamesam/223949d5a074ebc3dce9ee78baad9e27Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-rxwq-x6h5-x525Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/amlweems/xzbot
- https://github.com/karcherm/xz-malwareThird Party Advisory
- https://gynvael.coldwind.pl/?lang=en&id=782Technical Description, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2024/msg00057.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-security/2024-March/000248.htmlThird Party Advisory
- https://lwn.net/Articles/967180/Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39865810Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39877267Issue Tracking
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39895344
- https://openssf.org/blog/2024/03/30/xz-backdoor-cve-2024-3094/Third Party Advisory
- https://research.swtch.com/xz-script
- https://research.swtch.com/xz-timeline
- https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-3094Third Party Advisory
- https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2024-3094Third Party Advisory
- https://security.archlinux.org/CVE-2024-3094Third Party Advisory
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240402-0001/
- https://tukaani.org/xz-backdoor/Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory
- https://twitter.com/LetsDefendIO/status/1774804387417751958Third Party Advisory
- https://twitter.com/debian/status/1774219194638409898Press/Media Coverage
- https://twitter.com/infosecb/status/1774595540233167206Press/Media Coverage
- https://twitter.com/infosecb/status/1774597228864139400Press/Media Coverage
- https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-3094Third Party Advisory
- https://www.binarly.io/blog/persistent-risk-xz-utils-backdoor-still-lurking-in-docker-images
- https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2024/03/29/reported-supply-chain-compromise-affecting-xz-utils-data-compression-library-cve-2024-3094Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource
- https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/are-you-affected-by-the-backdoor-in-xz-utilsThird Party Advisory
- https://www.kali.org/blog/about-the-xz-backdoor/
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4Mailing List
- https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/urgent-security-alert-fedora-41-and-rawhide-usersVendor Advisory
- https://www.tenable.com/blog/frequently-asked-questions-cve-2024-3094-supply-chain-backdoor-in-xz-utilsThird Party Advisory
- https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/29/malicious_backdoor_xz/Press/Media Coverage
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/vulnerabilities/cve-2024-3094
- https://xeiaso.net/notes/2024/xz-vuln/Third Party Advisory
Timeline
- Published
- Mar 29, 2024
- Last modified
- Nov 4, 2026
- NVD status
- Modified