FormMail Recipient CGI Variable Spamming Vulnerability

BID:2469

Info

FormMail Recipient CGI Variable Spamming Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 2469
Class: Input Validation Error
CVE:
Remote: Yes
Local: No
Published: Mar 07 2001 12:00AM
Updated: Mar 07 2001 12:00AM
Credit: Reported to bugtraq by Michael Rawls <[email protected]> on Sat, 10 Mar 2001. Additional significant details and examples were provided in an advisory by "Ronald F. Guilmette" <[email protected]>, which was released on January 23rd, 2002.
Vulnerable: Matt Wright FormMail 1.9
Matt Wright FormMail 1.8
Matt Wright FormMail 1.7
Matt Wright FormMail 1.6
- Digital (Compaq) TRU64/DIGITAL UNIX 4.0 f
- FreeBSD FreeBSD 5.0
- HP HP-UX 11.0 4
- IBM AIX 4.3.2
- Linux kernel 2.3 .x
- Linux kernel 2.2 .x
- NetBSD NetBSD 1.3.3
- OpenBSD OpenBSD 2.6
- SCO Unixware 7.1.1
- SGI IRIX 6.5.6
- Sun Solaris 8_sparc
- Sun SunOS 4.1.4
Matt Wright FormMail 1.5
Matt Wright FormMail 1.4
Matt Wright FormMail 1.3
Matt Wright FormMail 1.2
Matt Wright FormMail 1.1
Matt Wright FormMail 1.0
Not Vulnerable:

Discussion

FormMail Recipient CGI Variable Spamming Vulnerability

FormMail is a widely-used web-based e-mail gateway, which allows form-based input to be emailed to a specified user. It is written in Perl and will run on most Linux and Unix variants, in addition to Microsoft Windows operating systems.

A vulnerability exists in FormMail which permits a remote user to send anonymous email to arbitrary recipients.

The script is designed to accept variables from any form and mail them to a specified recipient email address.

The script relies on an HTTP variable for this email address, and provides no indication of the original sender (via the CGI interface) in the email.

This can be employed to send anonymous spam or forged e-mails, potentially in large volumes.

It should be noted that FormMail 1.9 is still prone to this issue. FormMail 1.9 employs measures to attempt to validate the legitimacy of the recipient address. However, it has been reported that these measures may be circumvented via cleverly crafted input.

Exploit / POC

FormMail Recipient CGI Variable Spamming Vulnerability

This issue can be exploited with a web browser.

Solution / Fix

FormMail Recipient CGI Variable Spamming Vulnerability

Solution:
A SourceForge project, entitled nms, has been started to serve as a repository for user-supplied replacements for various Matt Wright scripts. Users intent on using this software should investigate nms at the following URL:

http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/

Various workarounds have been suggested which address this issue from various angles. No vendor supplied fix seems to completely address this issue.

Parameshwar Babu <[email protected]> has supplied a patch:


Matt Wright FormMail 1.6

References

FormMail Recipient CGI Variable Spamming Vulnerability

References:
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