GNU Aspell Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

BID:10497

Info

GNU Aspell Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 10497
Class: Boundary Condition Error
CVE: CVE-2004-0548
Remote: No
Local: Yes
Published: Jun 08 2004 12:00AM
Updated: Jul 05 2016 09:27PM
Credit: Shaun Colley <[email protected]> disclosed this vulnerability to Bugtraq.
Vulnerable: Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.1 x86_64
Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.1
Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.0 AMD64
Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.0
GNU Aspell 0.50.5
Gentoo Linux 1.4
Not Vulnerable:

Discussion

GNU Aspell Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

It is reported that the word-list-compress utility, which is a part of aspell contains a buffer overflow vulnerability.

The word-list-compress utility is used for the compression and decompression of word lists. Improper bounds checking allows a buffer overflow condition allowing code execution in the context of the victim's account.

An attacker would have to have access to influence the contents of another user's dictionary to successfully exploit this issue. Potentially through social engineering, improper file permissions, or a file association vulnerability.

Exploit / POC

GNU Aspell Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Some proof of concept examples were provided by Shaun Colley &lt;[email protected]&gt;.

echo `perl -e 'print "a"x1000'` | word-list-compress c
echo `perl -e 'print "a"x1000'` | word-list-compress d

These commands should produce a segmentation fault, with the resulting core dumps showing the ability of the attacker to influence the execution of the utility.

c0d3r / root . [email protected] provided a proof of concept exploit:

Solution / Fix

GNU Aspell Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Solution:
Mandrake has released an advisory (MDKSA-2004:153) dealing with this issue. Please see the referenced advisory for more information.

Gentoo Linux has released advisory GLSA 200406-14 dealing with this issue. Please see the referenced advisory for further information. Users of affected packages are urged to execute the following as superuser:
emerge sync
emerge -pv ">=app-text/aspell-0.50.5-r2"
emerge ">=app-text/aspell-0.50.5-r2"

Gentoo has released a revision to their initial advisory. User's are recommended to update their packages to the latest available using the emerge tool. Please see the referenced advisory for more information.

OpenPKG has released an advisory (OpenPKG-SA-2004.042) dealing with this issue. Please see the referenced advisory for more information.


GNU Aspell 0.50.5

Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.0

Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.0 AMD64

Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.1

Mandriva Linux Mandrake 10.1 x86_64

References

GNU Aspell Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

References:

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