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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2017-5981 Gdraheim CVE debrief

CVE-2017-5981 is a denial-of-service issue in zziplib 0.13.62. The published description says a crafted ZIP file can trigger an assertion failure in seeko.c and crash the application. NVD rates the issue as medium severity with availability impact only, so defenders should focus on any workflow that parses untrusted ZIP archives.

Vendor
Gdraheim
Product
Zziplib
CVSS
MEDIUM 5.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-03-01
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-03-01
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Teams running applications, services, or desktop tools that use zziplib 0.13.62 to process ZIP archives, especially where archives may come from untrusted sources or where a crash would interrupt service.

Technical summary

The NVD record identifies CWE-617 and describes an assertion failure in zziplib's seeko.c path that can be triggered by a crafted ZIP file, resulting in a crash/denial of service. The CVSS vector provided by NVD is CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, indicating no confidentiality or integrity impact and high availability impact. The textual description also characterizes the attacker as remote, so the safest interpretation is to treat archive handling as exposed whenever untrusted ZIP input reaches zziplib.

Defensive priority

Medium. Prioritize remediation where zziplib processes attacker-controlled archives, where crashes would affect availability, or where the library is embedded in exposed file-processing pipelines.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade or replace zziplib 0.13.62 with a vendor- or distribution-patched release referenced by the affected advisories.
  • Temporarily restrict or sandbox processing of untrusted ZIP files until the affected package is patched.
  • Run archive parsing in a separate process or container so an assertion failure does not take down the main service.
  • Monitor logs, crash reports, and core dumps for seeko.c assertion failures.
  • Verify package status against the Debian security advisory and your distribution's security guidance before resuming normal archive processing.

Evidence notes

The debrief is based on the NVD record for CVE-2017-5981, which was published on 2017-03-01 and later modified on 2026-05-13. The source corpus names zziplib 0.13.62, describes a crafted ZIP file causing an assertion failure in seeko.c, and assigns CWE-617. Linked references include Debian DSA-3878, SecurityFocus BID 96268, and a Gentoo blog post titled 'zziplib assertion failure in seeko.c'.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2017-5981 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-5981

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2017-5981 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5981

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.