RSEC-2023-1

The readxl R package has been found susceptible to vulnerabilities due to its dependency on libxls library version 1.4.0. Two distinct memory management issues were discovered in the read_MSAT and read_MSAT_body functions within the ole.c component of libxls. The first vulnerability is a double-free flaw in the read_MSAT function, which could be exploited by an attacker using a crafted file to cause a Denial of Service (DoS), resulting in an application crash. This vulnerability is different from CVE-2017-2897. The second vulnerability is an invalid free flaw in the read_MSAT_body function. This issue, stemming from inconsistent memory management in the ole2_read_header function, allows attackers to trigger a DoS, application crash, or possibly an unspecified impact through a specially crafted file.