Duplicate Advisory: uutils coreutils' comm utility incorrectly consumes data from non-regular file inputs before performing comparison operations
Moderate severity
GitHub Reviewed
Published
Apr 22, 2026
to the GitHub Advisory Database
•
Updated Jul 6, 2026
Withdrawn
This advisory was withdrawn on Jul 6, 2026
Description
Published by the National Vulnerability Database
Apr 22, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database
Apr 22, 2026
Reviewed
Apr 29, 2026
Last updated
Jul 6, 2026
Withdrawn
Jul 6, 2026
Duplicate Advisory
This advisory has been withdrawn because it is a duplicate of GHSA-3wfc-mgpm-9rq6. This link is maintained to preserve external references.
Original Description
The comm utility in uutils coreutils incorrectly consumes data from non-regular file inputs before performing comparison operations. The are_files_identical function opens and reads from both input paths to compare content without first verifying if the paths refer to regular files. If an input path is a FIFO or a pipe, this pre-read operation drains the stream, leading to silent data loss before the actual comparison logic is executed. Additionally, the utility may hang indefinitely if it attempts to pre-read from infinite streams like /dev/zero.
References