CVE-2025-58183 is a resource exhaustion vulnerability classified under CWE-400 affecting the Go standard library's archive/tar package, specifically the tar.Reader component. The issue stems from the Reader's failure to impose a maximum limit on the number of sparse region data blocks when processing GNU tar pax 1.0 sparse files. Sparse files use metadata to represent large files with empty regions efficiently. However, a maliciously crafted tar archive can contain an excessive number of sparse regions, causing the tar.Reader to allocate an unbounded amount of memory while reading these regions. This problem is exacerbated when the archive is compressed, as a small compressed input can decompress into a very large memory allocation, leading to potential denial of service (DoS) conditions due to memory exhaustion. The vulnerability affects all versions of the Go archive/tar package up to and including version 1.25.0. Exploitation requires no privileges but does require user interaction in the form of processing a crafted archive file. There are no known public exploits or patches available at the time of publication. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium), reflecting network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction needed, and impact limited to availability (memory exhaustion). This vulnerability is particularly relevant for applications and services that automatically process tar archives, such as CI/CD pipelines, container image extraction, backup and restore tools, and cloud-native applications written in Go.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-58183 is the risk of denial of service through memory exhaustion when processing malicious tar archives. This can disrupt critical services that rely on Go-based software for handling tar files, including container orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes components written in Go), cloud infrastructure tools, and automated deployment pipelines. Memory exhaustion can lead to application crashes, degraded performance, or system instability, potentially causing downtime and operational disruption. While the vulnerability does not directly compromise confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact can affect business continuity and service reliability. Organizations with automated workflows that ingest untrusted tar archives or compressed tarballs are at higher risk. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate threat but does not eliminate the risk, especially as attackers may develop exploits over time. Additionally, the vulnerability could be leveraged in multi-stage attacks to cause disruption or as a vector to trigger failover mechanisms, increasing operational costs and complexity.

To mitigate CVE-2025-58183, European organizations should: 1) Update Go to a version beyond 1.25.0 once a patch is released that enforces limits on sparse region counts in tar.Reader. 2) Implement input validation and limit processing of untrusted tar archives, especially those using GNU pax sparse format. 3) Employ resource monitoring and memory usage limits on processes handling tar archives to detect and prevent excessive memory consumption. 4) Use sandboxing or containerization to isolate archive processing components, minimizing impact on the host system. 5) Where feasible, avoid automatic processing of tar archives from untrusted sources or require manual verification before extraction. 6) Incorporate rate limiting and scanning of compressed inputs to detect unusually small compressed files that decompress to large sizes. 7) Monitor logs and alerts for abnormal memory usage patterns during archive extraction. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling resource consumption, isolating vulnerable components, and enforcing strict input handling policies.