A supposed security flaw in 7-Zip turns out to be a false alarm related to artificial intelligence.
The creator's quick response seems difficult to refute.
A Twitter user shared information about an alleged zero-day exploit in the popular file compression software 7-Zip, but its creator, Igor Pavlov, quickly refuted it, calling it an AI-generated hoax.
Pavlov stated that the code of the supposed exploit was what is known as a "hallucination" of a language model. This refers to situations where artificial intelligence produces false or misleading information. In his comments on a software repository, the creator explained that the misleading code claimed there was a vulnerability in the LZMA decoder of 7-Zip, mentioning a supposed malfunction that could cause a buffer overflow.
However, Pavlov clarified that the function RC_NORM does not exist within the LZMA decoder. The term RC_NORM refers to a macro in the LZMA encoder and the PPMD decoder, meaning that the statement made in the code of the supposed exploit is false. Since 7-Zip is open-source software, anyone has the opportunity to verify the claims made by Pavlov.
Without revealing the identity of the Twitter user who spread this rumor, it is suggested that it may have been a desperate attempt to capture attention online, as the individual claimed to be conducting a week of software exploit revelations as a thank you to their new followers.
