by • RAR, or WinRAR in its contemporary Windows form, has been popular in file sharing and software distribution circles for decades due to its built-in error recovery and file reconstruction features.
• This is based on parity correction (using XOR ‘exclusive OR’ operations) and Reed-Solomon codes in newer versions.
• A recently discovered bug in WinRAR (CVE-2023-40477) leads to an exploitable buffer overflow vulnerability when using the data recovery system.
• A second security bug was patched in the latest WinRAR release, which has been exploited in real life via booby-trapped archives posted online.
• If you’re a WinRAR user, make sure you’re on the latest version, and if you’re a programmer, remember to review legacy code that’s still in your software.
• Consider fuzzing to test your code for vulnerabilities that may have gone unnoticed for years.
