S.u.S.E. Gnomelib Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

BID:1155

Info

S.u.S.E. Gnomelib Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 1155
Class: Boundary Condition Error
CVE:
Remote: No
Local: Yes
Published: Apr 29 2000 12:00AM
Updated: Apr 29 2000 12:00AM
Credit: This vulnerability was posted to the Bugtraq mailing list on April 29, 2000 by bladi <[email protected]>
Vulnerable: SuSE Linux 6.4
SuSE Linux 6.3
Not Vulnerable: Redhat Linux 6.2 sparc
Redhat Linux 6.2 i386
Redhat Linux 6.2 alpha

Discussion

S.u.S.E. Gnomelib Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

A vulnerability exists in the handling of the DISPLAY variable, in versions of Gnomelib shipped with S.u.S.E. Linux, version 6.3. By supplying a long buffer containing machine executable code in the DISPLAY environment variable, it is possible to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running the binary. In the case of a setuid binary, it is possible to obtain the privileges of the user it is setuid to. This in turn may be used to elevate privileges, and in theory could result in local root compromise.

S.u.S.E. 6.3 ships with 1 setgid application, /opt/gnome/sbin/gnome-pty-helper, which is setgid tty. 6.4 ships with setgid gnome games. The version of gnomelib included with S.u.S.E. 6.4 is not vulnerable to this attack, however.

Exploit / POC

S.u.S.E. Gnomelib Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Exploit available:

Solution / Fix

S.u.S.E. Gnomelib Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Solution:
S.u.S.E. has released an update which fixes the DISPLAY variable overflow problem.
Set permission of /opt/gnome/sbin/gnome-pty-helper more restricted: 755, root, tty


SuSE Linux 6.3

SuSE Linux 6.4

References

S.u.S.E. Gnomelib Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

References:
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