Security vulnerability in UnAceV2.dll
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@BigMike We go the files from Christian over the weekend, but we could not reproduce them being sent to wrong path, so thank you for testing. We have issued updates for all PowerArchiver setups over the weekend, so you can get latest update via our website. Should be going up on PB later today.
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Did you test with a x86 OS/PowerArchiver. As I wrote, I was able to reproduce the issue (only) in the x86 version.
But thank you for your quick action.
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@BigMike said in Security vulnerability in UnAceV2.dll:
Did you test with a x86 OS/PowerArchiver. As I wrote, I was able to reproduce the issue (only) in the x86 version.
But thank you for your quick action.
yeah, ace.dll was 32bit only so it worked in 32bit versions of PA only. But couldnt reproduce it, regardless of that we have removed it for now. Thanks for the testing and checking!
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Actually, the new behavior may lead to some confusion if a user doesn’t know about this issue.
The new versions can open ACE archives and display the contents. (I guess, this is your own code).
Trying to extract via command line (PACL), shell extension or dialogs (PowerArchiver) fails silently without an error/information message.Trying to extract via drag and drop will create 0 byte files, while the correct file sizes are displayed in the archive. Again, no error/information message.
Could you please either add a message or remove the support for this format completely?
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FWIW, I have been heavily into computing since April 1992 and was online well before the internet was even around and have never come across an ACE archive.
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I used ACE format for my own file storage, years ago. There was a time, when ACE had very good compression ratios compared to other formats.
But as you say, it was pretty unknown for most people and therefore not suited for common file exchange. As 7z is wide spread and has good ratios, I mostly use this format.But this doesn’t change the point of my last post. At least a message should be displayed, that extracting files from ACE archives isn’t supported anymore, to not confuse users.
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@spwolf Just to let you know:
ghisler, the author of Total Commander, managed to patch UnAceV2.dll, so that the path traversal attacks fail:
Post with the patched dllExplanation, what was changed (German)
You wrote, you weren’t able to reproduce the issue at all.
I was able to reproduce it with ghisler’s test file (just rechecked with PA 19.00.30, x86)…
I’ve tested his patched dll with the very same version. The issue seems to be fixed here.
The extraction of a malicious ace file silently fails as described. A “good” ace archive extracts as expected.I’m not sure if adding ACE support again, is wise.
It’s an pretty old format and maybe the next vulnerability couldn’t be fixed, as there’s no source code for the dll and no official support for years. And it’s not working in x64 anyway.But if you like, there would be a possibility.
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@BigMike Christian sent us that patch info right away, super nice guy, but for us the problem is as you say that someone could discover some other vulnerability and we would have the same problem, so it is too risk for , as you say, an old little used format that doesnt work on x64 anyway.
thanks!
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Thank you for sharing the information it was helpful.





