cpio is unable to read a USTAR archive created by itself:
$ ls -ogl
4 -rw-r--r-- 1 30 Oct 18 21:35 x
$ echo x | cpio -ovH ustar > x.cpio
x
4 blocks
$ cpio -ivtH ustar < x.cpio
*** Error in `cpio': realloc(): invalid pointer: 0x0044cb20 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x6737a)[0xb75d637a]
/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x6dfb7)[0xb75dcfb7]
/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(realloc+0x1ee)[0xb75e133e]
/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(realloc+0x24b)[0xb75e139b]
cpio(+0x18e6e)[0x43ce6e]
cpio(process_copy_in+0x52b)[0x4283ab]
cpio(main+0x82)[0x4264e2]
/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf6)[0xb7587276]
cpio(+0x2593)[0x426593]
======= Memory map: ========
00424000-0044b000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 98322 /bin/cpio
0044b000-0044c000 r--p 00026000 fe:01 98322 /bin/cpio
0044c000-0044d000 rw-p 00027000 fe:01 98322 /bin/cpio
0044d000-0044e000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
00477000-00498000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [heap]
b73e2000-b73fe000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 475279 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
b73fe000-b73ff000 r--p 0001b000 fe:01 475279 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
b73ff000-b7400000 rw-p 0001c000 fe:01 475279 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
b7400000-b7421000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b7421000-b7500000 ---p 00000000 00:00 0
b7529000-b7534000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 475380 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_files-2.24.so
b7534000-b7535000 r--p 0000a000 fe:01 475380 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_files-2.24.so
b7535000-b7536000 rw-p 0000b000 fe:01 475380 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_files-2.24.so
b7536000-b753c000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b753c000-b7547000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 475383 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_nis-2.24.so
b7547000-b7548000 r--p 0000a000 fe:01 475383 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_nis-2.24.so
b7548000-b7549000 rw-p 0000b000 fe:01 475383 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_nis-2.24.so
b7549000-b755f000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 475353 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnsl-2.24.so
b755f000-b7560000 r--p 00016000 fe:01 475353 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnsl-2.24.so
b7560000-b7561000 rw-p 00017000 fe:01 475353 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnsl-2.24.so
b7561000-b7563000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b7563000-b756b000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 475362 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_compat-2.24.so
b756b000-b756c000 r--p 00007000 fe:01 475362 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_compat-2.24.so
b756c000-b756d000 rw-p 00008000 fe:01 475362 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnss_compat-2.24.so
b756d000-b756f000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b756f000-b7720000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 475294 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.24.so
b7720000-b7721000 ---p 001b1000 fe:01 475294 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.24.so
b7721000-b7723000 r--p 001b1000 fe:01 475294 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.24.so
b7723000-b7724000 rw-p 001b3000 fe:01 475294 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.24.so
b7724000-b7727000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b773d000-b7740000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b7740000-b7742000 r--p 00000000 00:00 0 [vvar]
b7742000-b7744000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vdso]
b7744000-b7767000 r-xp 00000000 fe:01 475286 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.24.so
b7767000-b7768000 r--p 00022000 fe:01 475286 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.24.so
b7768000-b7769000 rw-p 00023000 fe:01 475286 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.24.so
bfab1000-bfad2000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [stack]
Aborted