Re: Mail bug

From: Roland Dworschak (rolandat_private)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 11:08:59 PDT

  • Next message: Alex: "Re: Mail bug"

    Hi,
    
    I'm running Slackware 7.1 with the same mail version like you: Mail version
    8.1 6/6/93, but it didn't core dumped here:
    
    del@unity:~$ wget http://owned.lab6.com/~gossi/crashmail.txt
    del@unity:~$ cp crashmail.txt /var/spool/mail/del
    del@unity:~$ mail
    Mail version 8.1 6/6/93.  Type ? for help.
    "/var/spool/mail/del": 1 message 1 new
    >N  1 sup-infoat_private  Sat Jun  2 04:52 161/5376  "Security Update:
    [CSS"
    
    /usr/bin/Mail is not suid here.
    
    
    regards,
    
         roland dworschak
    
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Gossi The Dog [mailto:gossiat_private]
    Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2001 7:41 PM
    To: vuln-devat_private
    Subject: Mail bug
    
    
    Hi,
    
    I've discovered slightly odd behavour from /usr/bin/Mail on my Redhat 6.2
    box.  I don't really have the time to fiddle with this, so I'm hoping you
    guys can provide feedback as to if this is reproducable on other systems.
    
    Lets start with version numbers;
    
    [gossi@owned gossi]$ strings /bin/mail | grep version
    version
    Mail version %s.  Type ? for help.
    $OpenBSD: version.c,v 1.4 1996/06/08 19:48:46 christos Exp $
    
    [gossi@owned gossi]$ mail
    Mail version 8.1 6/6/93.  Type ? for help.
    
    Now, the bug appears to be this;
    
    If Mail encounters hex character x00 (aka ^@ as vi shows it), it seg
    faults and dumps it core.  On Slackware and (I believe) Debian, Mail is
    suid root.  On Redhat it isn't.  Other distros might have the suid bit
    set.
    
    There are two ways to easily reproduce this;
    
    echo -e \\x00 >/var/spool/mail/gossi
    mail
    
    (substituing gossi for your userid, obviously).  If it works, it should
    die.
    
    Or;
    
    wget http://owned.lab6.com/~gossi/crashmail.txt
    cp crashmail.txt /var/spool/mail/gossi
    mail
    
    I'd recommend using wget, as IE appears to drop the x00 character.  You
    can check you have the mail file in question by looking with vi - the last
    line should read ^@.
    
    Example of it reproduced on owned.lab6.com (Redhat 6.2);
    
    -------
    [gossi@owned gossi]$ wget http://owned.lab6.com/~gossi/crashmail.txt
    --18:37:41--  http://owned.lab6.com:80/%7Egossi/crashmail.txt
               => `crashmail.txt'
    Connecting to owned.lab6.com:80... connected!
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
    Length: 5,378 [text/plain]
    
        0K -> .....                                                  [100%]
    
    18:37:41 (5.13 MB/s) - `crashmail.txt' saved [5378/5378]
    
    [gossi@owned gossi]$ cp crashmail.txt /var/spool/mail/gossi
    [gossi@owned gossi]$ mail
    Segmentation fault (core dumped)
    
    ---------
    
    So, roughly, the questions I can see are;
    
    a) can you reproduce it
    b) what OS/distro
    c) is Mail suid root?
    d) why is it doing this, and is it exploitable?
    
    
    Regards,
    Gossi The Dog.
    
         roland dworschak
     linux administration
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