Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 18:19:20 +0400
From: 3APA3A <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]Subject: unsafe fgets() in qpopper
Hello,
Topic: unsafe fgets() using in qpopper
Software affected: qpopper 3.0 fc2, qpopper 2.53 and probably
others
Description: malicious user can remotely post message
with spoofed or incorrect headers (including
"Received:" one) and in some cases bypass
virus checking. This can be used for sending
trojans or to attack vulnerabilities in MUA.
Status: Vendor contacted, bug scheduled to be patched
in next release, FreeBSD port patched.
Background:
In most unix systems e-mail delivered to user is usually stored in his
mailbox, which has predefined format (so-called "unix mailbox" or
"berkley mailbox"). This mailbox holds messages in plain format
separated by empty line ("\n") and specially formed "From " header.
The pattern of the next message in mailbox is "\n\nForm ".
Then local mail programs (f.e. mail.local) delivers message to user's
mailbox it searches for this pattern and if message contains one
"From " will be commented out by '>' and additional '\n' will be
added to message if necessary. This assumes mailbox integrity and
protects from e-mail spoofing.
Problem description:
qpopper has vulnerability which allows for malicious user to generate
his own "From " with followed email headers and text. The problem is
in the way qpopper reads data from mailbox. Qpopper uses fgets() or
fgets()-like routine, mfgets(), which reads data from mailbox into the
fixed 1024 byte buffer and returns string in case either '\n'
character received or 1023 bytes read. Malicious user can put text
like (without leading spaces):
AAAA...AAA(string of 1023 symbols)\n
From user Wed Dec 2 05:53 -0700 1992
In this case fgets() will return 3 strings:
"AAAA...AAA(string of 1023)symbols", without '\n',
"\n",
"From user Wed Dec 2 05:53 -0700 1992"
and this will be recognized as a beginning of the new message in the
mailbox.
Text after "From " string will be recognized as a headers and text of
the next message, allowing to generate any headers and text.
Additionally, this "internal" messages will be treated by any software
as a plain text inside message, without any MIME attachments. This
allows to bypass virus checking in case antiviral tools scans only
attached files.
Possible temporary fix for qpopper 3.0 fc2 (not tested):
--- pop_dropcopy.c Sat Mar 18 02:31:11 2000
+++ pop_dropcopy.c Wed Apr 12 18:11:11 2000
@@ -205,6 +205,8 @@
int newline = 1;
+int isbreaked = 0;
+int wasbreaked = 0;
/*
* 0 for not a from line
@@ -229,6 +231,14 @@
/* If the previous line was not a newline then just return */
/* From message separators are preceeded by a newline */
+ if (isbreaked) {
+ wasbreaked = 1;
+ return ( 0 );
+ }
+ if (wasbreaked) {
+ wasbreaked = 0;
+ return ( 0 );
+ }
if ( *cp == '\n' ) {
newline = 1;
return ( 0 );
@@ -1593,9 +1603,13 @@
if( size <= 0 ) {
return NULL;
}
+ isbreaked = 1;
while( --size && ((c = getc(stream)) != EOF) ) {
if( (*p = (char)c) == '\0' ) *p = ' ';
- if( *p++ == '\n' ) break;
+ if( *p++ == '\n' ) {
+ isbreaked = 0;
+ break;
+ }
}
if( p == s ) return NULL;
*p = '\0';
Additional Info:
mail.local also uses fgets() for reading input message, but default
buffer size is 2048, so "From " will not be commented and problem can
be exploited. If another local mailer is used with same behavior and
buffer size 1024 or mailer splits strings of 1024 bytes this problem
couldn't be exploited.
http://www.security.nnov.ru
/\_/\
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