Linux detractors often say that, if and when Linux becomes as popular as
Windows, it will attract just as many attacks - and prove just as
vulnerable. The popularity of Linux exceeds that of Windows in some areas,
but, so far, these attacks have not materialized. It is now beginning to
look like this upsurge in attacks may not target Linux directly. Instead,
the Firefox browser may become the target of choice.
Eric Johanson recently put out an advisory demonstrating
how "homograph attacks" can work against Firefox (and Konqueror). These
attacks take advantage of international domain names, which can be written
in non-ASCII character sets. The problem is that many non-ASCII characters
are rendered just like (or very nearly like) characters in the ASCII set;
as a result, a visually identical domain name can actually point somewhere
unexpected. An example provided by Mr. Johanson is
www.pаypal.com, which your browser renders as
www.pаypal.com. This technique, clearly, could be used for
phishing attacks - especially when one considers that SSL certificates can
contain non-ASCII characters too. It is said that a short-term workaround
for this problem is to turn off the network.enableIDN parameter in
the about:config screen, but this workaround does not work for
all users, and it does not persist across sessions.
Meanwhile, "mikx" has posted a set of three different Firefox
vulnerabilities. "Fireflashing" is a trick
that, in conjunction with the Flash plugin, can be used to trick a Firefox
user into changing configuration parameters. The "firedragging" vulnerability gets around some
restrictions to possibly allow a (Windows) user to put a web-supplied
executable file onto the desktop. And "firetabbing" circumvents the isolation between
sites when links are dragged to different tabs. All of these
vulnerabilities have been acknowledge by the Mozilla Project and fixes have
been committed.
These attacks are not truly devastating. They make certain kinds of
phishing and social engineering attacks easier, but, hopefully, should not
fool suitably careful users. But they do show that the level of interest in
Firefox vulnerabilities is on the increase.
Attacking many parts of a Linux system is hard. Security is generally
reasonably good, one hopes, and techniques like privilege minimization,
privilege separation and sandboxing help to contain any vulnerabilities
which do exist. The sheer variety of deployed Linux systems also works
against attackers; an exploit which works on one system may be useless
against the next. The role of diversity in ensuring the security of Linux
systems should not be underestimated.
Firefox, however, is widely deployed and quite similar on all systems. If
nothing else, the project's trademark policies tend to ensure that Firefox
deployments will not vary much. Firefox contains interpreters which will
certainly contain exploits of the "write once, run anywhere" variety.
Firefox is directly controlled by users who may have little interest in -
or knowledge of - security policies. And, in many (perhaps most) cases, it talks directly
to random sites all over the net. So of course Firefox is being eyed as a
possible entry point to otherwise secure systems.
The Firefox browser is popular for a reason: it is a solid, highly
featureful, highly useful program. It is also a huge and complex program.
Regardless of the skill of the Mozilla hackers, verifying and maintaining
the security of a code base that large is going to be a major challenge.
Expect some interesting times over the next few years as the security
claims made by the Mozilla Project - and by the free software community in
general - are put to the test.
Max Vozeler discovered a format string vulnerability in the "movemail"
utility of Emacs. By sending specially crafted packets, a malicious
POP3 server could cause a buffer overflow, which could be exploited to
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user and the "mail"
group.
The "private" module in the mailman mailing list manager fails to sanitize path names adequately. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to retrieve private information, including passwords and private list archives.
The usenet news autoposter newspost has a buffer overflow which
can be exploited remotely, causing newspost to crash or
potentially execute arbitrary code.
Jean-Samuel Reynaud noticed a programming error in the IPv6 handling code
of Postfix when /proc/net/if_inet6 is not available. If "permit_mx_backup"
was enabled in the "smtpd_recipient_restrictions", Postfix turned into an
open relay, i. e. erroneously permitted the delivery of arbitrary mail to
any MX host which has an IPv6 address.
Python versions 2.2 and 2.3 has a vulnerability in the
SimpleXMLRPCServer module which may allow
remote users to read or change function internals via the
im_* and func_* attributes.
Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in Squid, including cache
pollution/poisoning via HTTP response splitting, larger than normal WCCP
packet could overflow a buffer, and more.
The GNU a2ps utility fails to properly sanitize filenames, which can be
abused by a malicious user to execute arbitrary commands with the
privileges of the user running the vulnerable application. More
information at Security
Focus.
When 'awstats.pl' is run as a CGI script, it fails to validate specific
inputs which are used in a Perl open() function call. A remote attacker
could supply AWStats malicious input, potentially allowing the execution of
arbitrary code with the rights of the web server.
A vulnerability was discovered in BIND version 9.3.0,
an incorrect assumption in the validator function can be exploited by
a remote attacker to cause named to exit prematurely.
Danny Lungstrom discovered a vulnerability in chbg, a tool to change
background pictures. A maliciously crafted configuration/scenario
file could overflow a buffer and lead to the execution of arbitrary
code on the victim's machine.
cyrus-sasl has a vulnerability involving a buffer overflow
in the digestmda5.c file. A remote attacker may be able
to compromise the system. Also, a local user may be able to
exploit a vulnerability by using the SASL_PATH environment
variable.
Erik Sjölund has discovered several security relevant problems in enscript,
a program to convert ASCII text into Postscript and other formats.
Unsanitized input can cause the execution of arbitrary commands via EPSF
pipe support. Due to missing sanitizing of filenames it is possible that a
specially crafted filename can cause arbitrary commands to be executed.
Multiple buffer overflows can cause the program to crash.
Max Vozeler discovered an integer overflow in camel-lock-helper. A
user-supplied length value was not validated, so that a value of -1
caused a buffer allocation of 0 bytes; this buffer was then filled by
an arbitrary amount of user-supplied data. A local attacker or a malicious
POP3 server could exploit this to execute arbitrary code with root
privileges (because camel-lock-helper is installed as setuid root).
The f2c fortran to C translator has a vulnerability due to
insecure opening of temporary files. A local attacker can use this
to launch a symlink attack.
FireHOL insecurely creates temporary files with predictable names. A local
attacker could create malicious symbolic links to arbitrary system
files. When FireHOL is executed, this could lead to these files being
overwritten with the rights of the user launching FireHOL, usually the root
user.
There is a vulnerability in the foomatic-filters package. This
vulnerability is due to insufficient checking of command-line parameters
and environment variables in the foomatic-rip filter. This vulnerability
may allow both local and remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on
the print server with the permissions of the spooler.
A buffer overflow in the MSN protocol handler for gaim 0.79 to 1.0.1 allows
remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) and
possibly execute arbitrary code via an "unexpected sequence of MSNSLP
messages" that results in an unbounded copy operation that writes to the
wrong buffer.
Rafel Ivgi has discovered a cross-site scripting vulnerability where
the 'username' parameter is not properly sanitized in 'login.php'. See
this Gallery
announcement for the release of 1.4.4-pl5 for more information.
The gdk-pixbuf and gtk2 libraries contain vulnerabilities in their handling of BMP and XPM files which can lead to denial of service and, potentially, code execution attacks.
gettext insecurely creates temporary files in world-writeable directories
with predictable names. A local attacker could create symbolic links in
the temporary files directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the
filesystem. When gettext is called, this would result in file access with
the rights of the user running the utility, which could be the root user.
Silvio Cesare discovered a potential information leak in glibc. It allows
LD_DEBUG on SUID binaries where it should not be allowed. This has various
security implications, which may be used to gain confidential information.
An attacker can gain the list of symbols a SUID application uses and their
locations and can then use a trojaned library taking precedence over those
symbols to gain information or perform further exploitation.
The catchsegv script in the glibc package has a symlink vulnerability
that may allow a local user to overwrite arbitrary
files with the permissions of the user that is running the script.
Several scripts packaged with gnome-vfs, using its "extfs" capability, have security flaws. These scripts tend not to be used on many systems, but their presence can still be a threat.
Recently, Trustix Secure Linux discovered a vulnerability in the groff
package. The utility "groffer" created a temporary directory in an
insecure way, which allowed exploitation of a race condition to create
or overwrite files with the privileges of the user invoking the
program.
GtkHTML is the HTML rendering widget used by the Evolution mail reader.
GtkHTML supplied with versions of Evolution prior to 1.2.4 contain a bug
when handling HTML messages. Alan Cox discovered that certain malformed
messages could cause the Evolution mail component to crash.
According to this iDEFENSE advisory,
ImageMagick is vulnerable to a heap overflow when decoding .psd image
files. This could be remotely exploited allowing an attacker to execute
arbitrary code.
Faheem Mitha noticed that the iptables command, an administration tool for
IPv4 packet filtering and NAT, did not always load the required modules on
its own as it was supposed to. This could lead to firewall rules not being
loaded on system startup. This caused a failure in connection with rules
provided by lokkit at least.
Thiago Macieira discovered a vulnerability in the kioslave library,
which is part of kdelibs, which allows a remote attacker to execute
arbitrary FTP commands via an ftp:// URL that contains an URL-encoded
newline before the FTP command.
There is a buffer overflow in the password history handling code of
libkadm5srv which could be exploited by an authenticated user to execute
arbitrary code on a Key Distribution Center (KDC) server.
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña from the Debian Security Audit Project
discovered that the DBI library, the Perl5 database interface, creates
a temporary PID file in an insecure manner. This can be exploited by a
malicious user to overwrite arbitrary files owned by the person
executing the parts of the library.
Several buffer overflows have been discovered in libgd's PNG handling
functions.
If an attacker tricked a user into loading a malicious PNG image, they
could leverage this into executing arbitrary code in the context of
the user opening image. Most importantly, this library is commonly
used in PHP. One possible target would be a PHP driven photo website
that lets users upload images. Therefore this vulnerability might lead
to privilege escalation to a web server's privileges.
Multiple buffer overflows in the gd graphics library (libgd) 2.0.21 and
earlier may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via malformed
image files that trigger the overflows due to improper calls to the
gdMalloc function.
Yuuichi Teranishi discovered a flaw in libxml2 versions prior to 2.6.6.
When fetching a remote resource via FTP or HTTP, libxml2 uses special
parsing routines. These routines can overflow a buffer if passed a very
long URL. If an attacker is able to find an application using libxml2 that
parses remote resources and allows them to influence the URL, then this
flaw could be used to execute arbitrary code.
libxml2 prior to version 2.6.14 has multiple buffer overflow
vulnerabilities, if a local user passes a specially crafted
FTP URL, arbitrary code may be executed.
Trustix Secure Linux discovered a vulnerability in a supplemental script of
the lvm10 package. The program "lvmcreate_initrd" created a temporary
directory in an insecure way, which could allow a symlink attack to create
or overwrite arbitrary files with the privileges of the user invoking the
program.
Florian Weimer discovered a cross-site scripting vulnerability in
mailman's automatically generated error messages. An attacker could
craft an URL containing JavaScript (or other content embedded into
HTML) which triggered a mailman error page. When an unsuspecting user
followed this URL, the malicious content was copied unmodified to the
error page and executed in the context of this page.
A vulnerability was discovered in mpg321, a command-line mp3 player,
whereby user-supplied strings were passed to printf(3) unsafely. This
vulnerability could be exploited by a remote attacker to overwrite
memory, and possibly execute arbitrary code. In order for this
vulnerability to be exploited, mpg321 would need to play a malicious
mp3 file (including via HTTP streaming).
Several problems have been discovered in MySQL. Oleksandr Byelkin noticed
that ALTER TABLE ... RENAME checks CREATE/INSERT rights of the old table
instead of the new one. (CAN-2004-0835) Lukasz Wojtow noticed a buffer
overrun in the mysql_real_connect function. (CAN-2004-0836) Dean Ellis
noticed that multiple threads ALTERing the same (or different) MERGE tables
to change the UNION can cause the server to crash or stall. (CAN-2004-0837)
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña noticed that the "mysqlaccess" program
created temporary files in an insecure manner. This could allow a
symbolic link attack to create or overwrite arbitrary files with the
privileges of the user invoking the program.
Jonathan Rockway discovered that NASM-0.98.38 has an unprotected
vsprintf() to an array in preproc.c. This code vulnerability may lead
to a buffer overflow and potential execution of arbitrary code.
Erik Sjolund discovered two vulnerabilities in the programs bundled
with ncpfs: there is a potentially exploitable buffer overflow in
ncplogin (CAN-2005-0014), and due to a flaw in nwclient.c, utilities
using the NetWare client functions insecurely access files with
elevated privileges (CAN-2005-0013).
Michal Zalewski discovered a bug in the netkit-telnet server (telnetd)
whereby a remote attacker could cause the telnetd process to free an
invalid pointer. This causes the telnet server process to crash, leading
to a straightforward denial of service (inetd will disable the service if
telnetd is crashed repeatedly), or possibly the execution of arbitrary code
with the privileges of the telnetd process (by default, the 'telnetd'
user).
Arjan van de Ven discovered a buffer overflow in rquotad on 64bit
architectures; an improper integer conversion could lead to a buffer
overflow. An attacker with access to an NFS share could send a specially
crafted request which could then lead to the execution of arbitrary code.
Florian Westphal discovered a buffer overflow caused by an integer
underflow in the Lists_MakeMask() function of lists.c. See the ngIRCd
0.8.2 release announcement for more information.
The der_chop script in openssl has a temp file vulnerability that may allow
an attacker to overwrite arbitrary files with the permissions that
the script is running under.
A stack-based buffer overflow in the get_internal_addresses function in the
pluto application for Openswan 1.x before 1.0.9, and Openswan 2.x before
2.3.0, when compiled XAUTH and PAM enabled, allows remote authenticated
attackers to execute arbitrary code.
There are two vulnerabilities with perl when it is used in a setuid mode. The PERLIO_DEBUG environment variable can be used to overwrite arbitrary files; there is also an associated buffer overflow which can be exploited to gain root access.
Stefan Esser has issued an advisory regarding a
remotely exploitable hole in PHP (through version 4.3.7). If the
memory_limit feature is in use (as it should be, to prevent denial
of service attacks), allocation failures can be forced at highly
inopportune times, and those failures can be exploited to execute arbitrary
code. The exploit is described as "quite easy," and it can be done
regardless of whether Apache1 or Apache2 is in use. Upgrading to PHP 4.3.8 fixes the
problem; yesterday's PHP 5.0 release also contains the fix (but the
final release candidate did not).
PHP has an out of bounds memory write access vulnerability and
an integer overflow/underflow problem. See the PHP 4.3.10 Release Announcement for details.
John Heasman has
discovered a local privilege escalation in the PostgreSQL server. Any
user could use the LOAD extension to load any shared library into the
PostgreSQL server; the library's initialization function was then executed
with the permissions of the server.
Max Vozeler discovered a vulnerability in pppoe, the PPP over Ethernet
driver from Roaring Penguin. When the program is running setuid root
(which is not the case in a default Debian installation), an attacker
could overwrite any file on the file system.
The upstream developers of Ruby have corrected a problem in the CGI
module for this language. Specially crafted requests could cause an
infinite loop and thus cause the program to eat up cpu cycles.
sharutils contains two buffer overflows. Ulf Harnhammar discovered a buffer
overflow in shar.c, where the length of data returned by the wc command is
not checked. Florian Schilhabel discovered another buffer overflow in
unshar.c. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to execute
arbitrary code as the user running one of the sharutils programs.
SpamAssassin contains an unspecified Denial of Service vulnerability. By
sending a specially crafted message an attacker could cause a Denial of
Service attack against the SpamAssassin service.
Squid contains a vulnerability in the gopherToHTML function and incorrectly
checks the 'number of caches' field when parsing WCCP_I_SEE_YOU messages.
Furthermore the NTLM code contains two errors. One is a memory leak in the
fakeauth_auth helper and the other is NULL pointer dereferencing error.
Subversion has a remote Denial of Service vulnerability
that may allow a server that runs svnserve to execute
arbitrary code. See this advisory for more information.
Versions of sudo prior to 1.6.8p2 fail to properly sanitize the environment prior to running shell scripts; this failure can be exploited by a sudo user to subvert scripts and obtain shell access. See the 1.6.8p2 announcement for more information.
The tar utility does not properly filter file names containing
"../", meaning that a hostile archive can, if unpacked by an
unsuspecting user, overwrite any file that is writable by that user. GNU
tar versions 1.13.19 and earlier are vulnerable; unzip through version 5.42
has the same vulnerability.
The tiff library contains several buffer overflows which may be exploited
by way of maliciously-crafted image files. See this advisory for more information.
The unarj uncompression utility has a buffer overflow vulnerability
from handling long file names in an archive. An attacker can
cause unarj to crash or execute arbitrary code.
The uw-imap package, prior to version 2004b, contains a vulnerability which can enable a remote attacker to bypass the authentication mechanism. This bug only affects CRAM-MD5 authentication, which is not enabled on all distributions.
A new set of modeline-related vulnerabilities has been discovered in versions of vim prior to 6.3-r2. These vulnerabilities could conceivably be exploited by a local user to obtain the privileges of another user.
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña noticed that the auxiliary scripts
"tcltags" and "vimspell.sh" created temporary files in an insecure
manner. This could allow a symbolic link attack to create or overwrite
arbitrary files with the privileges of the user invoking the script
(either by calling it directly or by execution through vim).
XChat is vulnerable to a stack overflow that may allow a remote attacker to
run arbitrary code. The SOCKS 5 proxy code in XChat is vulnerable to a
remote exploit. Users would have to be using XChat through a SOCKS 5
server, enable SOCKS 5 traversal which is disabled by default and also
connect to an attacker's custom proxy server. This vulnerability may allow
an attacker to run arbitrary code within the context of the user ID of the
XChat client.
Shaun Colley discovered a problem in xine-ui, the xine video player
user interface. A script contained in the package to possibly remedy
a problem or report a bug does not create temporary files in a secure
fashion. This could allow a local attacker to overwrite files with
the privileges of the user invoking xine.
xpdf has a
potential buffer overflow problem caused by insufficient input validation.
A specially crafted PDF file can allow an
attacker to execute code with privileges of the xpdf user.
Several xpdf integer overflow vulnerabilities can be exploited via a
mal-formed PDF document. Similar vulnerabilities can be found in kpdf and
in cupsys which share code. Additional information can be found in this KDE security advisory.
HexView discovered a buffer overflow in the zip package. The overflow is
triggered by creating a ZIP archive of files with very long path
names. This vulnerability might result in execution of arbitrary code with
the privileges of the user who calls zip. This flaw may lead to privilege
escalation on systems which automatically create ZIP archives of user
supplied files, like backup systems or web applications.
kses is an HTML filter for PHP programs. If you have a PHP-based site which allows users to post content, kses can help you ensure that nothing nasty gets posted. Click below for details and download information.
The New Security Paradigms Workshop will be held September 20 to 23 in Lake Arrowhead, California. The call for papers has gone out; the submission deadline is March 28.
