FreeBSD Security Advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:44.filedesc

From: FreeBSD Security Advisories (security-advisoriesat_private)
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 09:49:07 PST

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    FreeBSD-SA-02:44.filedesc                                   Security Advisory
                                                              The FreeBSD Project
    
    Topic:          file descriptor leak in fpathconf
    
    Category:       core
    Module:         kernel
    Announced:      2003-01-07
    Credits:        Joost Pol <joostat_private>
    Affects:        FreeBSD 4.3-RELEASE and later versions
    Corrected:      2002-11-11 01:43:31 UTC (RELENG_4)
                    2003-01-06 12:37:52 UTC (RELENG_4_7)
                    2003-01-06 12:38:21 UTC (RELENG_4_6)
                    2003-01-07 15:17:16 UTC (RELENG_4_5)
                    2003-01-07 15:17:40 UTC (RELENG_4_4)
                    2003-01-06 21:20:54 UTC (RELENG_5_0)
    FreeBSD only:   YES
    
    0.   Revision History
    
    2003-01-06  v1.0  Initial release.
    2003-01-07  v1.1  Added information regarding bug in FreeBSD 5.x.
                      Added correction details for RELENG_4_5, RELENG_4_4.
    
    I.   Background
    
    The fpathconf system call provides a method for applications to
    determine the current value of a configurable system limit or option
    variable associated with a pathname or file descriptor.
    
    II.  Problem Description
    
    A programming error in the fpathconf system call can result in the
    given file descriptor's reference count being erroneously incremented.
    
    A similar problem exists in the developer preview versions of FreeBSD
    5.0, affecting the lseek(2), dup(2), and other system calls.
    
    III. Impact
    
    A local attacker may cause the operating system to crash by repeatedly
    calling fpathconf on a file descriptor until the reference count wraps
    to a negative value, and then calling close on that file descriptor.
    
    Similarly, it may be possible to cause a file descriptor to reference
    unallocated kernel memory, but remain valid.  If a new file is later
    opened and the kernel allocates the new file structure at the same
    memory location, then an attacker may be able to gain read or write
    access to that file.  This may in turn lead to privilege escalation.
    
    IV.  Workaround
    
    There is no workaround.
    
    V.   Solution
    
    The following patch has been verified to apply to FreeBSD 4.4, 4.5,
    4.6, and 4.7 systems.
    
    a) Download the relevant patch from the location below, and verify the
    detached PGP signature using your PGP utility.
    
    # fetch ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/patches/SA-02:44/filedesc.patch
    # fetch ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/patches/SA-02:44/filedesc.patch.asc
    
    b) Apply the patch.
    
    # cd /usr/src
    # patch < /path/to/patch
    
    c) Recompile your kernel as described in
    <URL:http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig.html> and reboot the
    system.
    
    VI.  Correction details
    
    The following list contains the revision numbers of each file that was
    corrected in FreeBSD.
    
    Path                                                             Revision
      Branch
    - -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    src/sys/kern/kern_descrip.c
      RELENG_4                                                      1.81.2.15
      RELENG_4_7                                                1.81.2.14.4.1
      RELENG_4_6                                                1.81.2.14.2.1
      RELENG_4_5                                                 1.81.2.9.2.3
      RELENG_4_4                                                 1.81.2.8.2.3
      RELENG_5_0                                                    1.169.2.2
    src/sys/kern/vfs_syscalls.c
      RELENG_5_0                                                    1.297.2.2
    - -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    VII. References
    
    <URL:http://www.pine.nl/press/pine-cert-20030101.txt>
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