Lynx 2.8 Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

BID:100

Info

Lynx 2.8 Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 100
Class: Boundary Condition Error
CVE:
Remote: Yes
Local: Unknown
Published: May 03 1998 12:00AM
Updated: May 03 1998 12:00AM
Credit: This vulnerability was published on the BugTraq mailing list by Michal Zalewski <[email protected]> on Sun, 3 May 1998.
Vulnerable: University of Kansas Lynx 2.8
Not Vulnerable:

Discussion

Lynx 2.8 Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

There exists a buffer overflow in Lynx's built-in mailer that can be exploited when when the victim tries to follow a hyperlink. Lynx makes blind assumption on e-mail address length, and sprintfs it into 512-bytes long buffer. The vulnerability is in LMail.c as part of the processing of "mailto:" URLs.

Exploit / POC

Lynx 2.8 Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

<a href="mailto:AAAAAAAAA[...about 3 kB...]AAAA">MAIL ME!</a>

(you should use over 2 kB of 'A's, because there are also other small
buffers on lynx's stack at the time)

Solution / Fix

Lynx 2.8 Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Solution:
Fix: replace sprintf with snprintf.

Upgrade to Lynx 2.8.1dev 10 or later.

References

Lynx 2.8 Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

References:

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