[VulnWatch] ISMAIL (All Versions) Remote Buffer Overrun

From: NGSSoftware Insight Security Research (markat_private)
Date: Thu Feb 27 2003 - 15:45:17 PST

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    NGSSoftware Insight Security Research Advisory
    
    Name:                    ISMAIL v 1.25 & v 1.4.3 Remote Buffer Overrun
    Systems Affected:  WinNT, Win2K, XP
    Severity:                 High Risk
    Category:               Remote Buffer Overrun
    Vendor URL:         http://instantservers.com/ismail.html
    Author:                  Mark Litchfield (markat_private)
    Date:                     27th February 2003
    Advisory number: #NISR27022003
    
    
    Vendor Description
    ******************
    
    ISMail is a powerful yet easy to use mail server for Windows
    95/98/ME/NT/2000 & XP.  It supports complete email service for both home and
    office use, and runs on a dedicated or a shared machine
    
    
    Details
    *******
    
    There exists a buffer overrun vulnerability in the SMTP service offered by
    ISMAIL.  By supplying long Domain name values in either the MAIL FROM: or
    RCPT TO: values, an attacker can overwrite the saved returned return address
    on the stack.  As ISMAIL runs as a LOCALSYSTEM account, any arbitrary code
    executed on the server being passed by an attacker will run with system
    privileges.  If no code is supplied, ISMAIL will simply crash leaving a file
    in the outgoing message folder which will immediately trigger the error once
    ISMail is restarted.
    
    Fix Information
    ***************
    The vendor has fixed the problems using the following:
    
    ISMail 1.4.5 (and subsequent versions) accept domain names up to 255
    characters in length. Domain names exceeding this length in the 'mail from'
    and 'rcpt to' commands will result in a response of: '501 Syntax error in
    parameters'
    Further, SMTP 'mail from' and 'rcpt to' command lines exceeding 1024
    characters (including the CRLF) will result in a response of: '500 Line too
    long'
    
    The fix is available from http://instantservers.com/download/ism145.exe
    Despite this is a BETA release, if you are running ISMAIL version 1.4.3 or
    below, NGS recommend upgrading to the BETA version to protect yourself from
    possible attacks.
    
    I would like to add that the vendors of ISMAIL reproduced, fixed and made a
    patch available within 48 hours of notification
    
    A check for these issues has been added to Typhon II, of which more
    information is available from the
    NGSSoftware website, http://www.ngssoftware.com.
    
    Further Information
    *******************
    
    For further information about the scope and effects of buffer overflows,
    please see
    
    http://www.ngssoftware.com/papers/non-stack-bo-windows.pdf
    http://www.ngssoftware.com/papers/ntbufferoverflow.html
    http://www.ngssoftware.com/papers/bufferoverflowpaper.rtf
    http://www.ngssoftware.com/papers/unicodebo.pdf
    



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