Richard Gooch SimpleInit Open File Descriptor Vulnerability

BID:5001

Info

Richard Gooch SimpleInit Open File Descriptor Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 5001
Class: Design Error
CVE: CVE-2002-0767
Remote: No
Local: Yes
Published: Jun 12 2002 12:00AM
Updated: Jul 11 2009 01:56PM
Credit: Credited to Patrick Smith <[email protected]>.
Vulnerable: Richard Gooch simpleinit 2.0.2
+ util-linux util-linux 2.11 r
 Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p4-gnomepanelsupport
Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p3
Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p2
Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p1
Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2
Not Vulnerable: Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p5

Discussion

Richard Gooch SimpleInit Open File Descriptor Vulnerability

A vulnerability has been reported for simpleinit that may allow users to execute arbitrary commands as the superuser.

The vulnerability occurs because simpleinit may allow some child processes to inherit a file descriptor with read-write access. The file descriptor is used to access /dev/initctl and this descriptor is normally used by 'initctl', 'need' and 'provide' programs to pass instructions to simpleinit. The simpleinit process runs with root privileges.

A local user whose process inherits this file descriptor will be able to cause simpleinit to execute commands as the superuser.

Exploit / POC

Richard Gooch SimpleInit Open File Descriptor Vulnerability

The following exploit has been provided by Patrick Smith &lt;[email protected]&gt;:

Solution / Fix

Richard Gooch SimpleInit Open File Descriptor Vulnerability

Solution:
An unofficial patch has been provided by Patrick Smith <[email protected]>:

--- login-utils/simpleinit.c.orig 2001-09-29 11:09:10.000000000 -0400
+++ login-utils/simpleinit.c 2002-05-23 22:16:07.000000000 -0400
@@ -203,6 +203,18 @@
if ( ( initctl_fd = open (initctl_name, O_RDWR, 0) ) < 0 )
err ( _("error opening fifo\n") );
}
+ if ( initctl_fd >= 0 )
+ if ( fcntl (initctl_fd, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC) != 0 ) {
+ err ( _("error setting close-on-exec on /dev/initctl") );
+ /* Can the fcntl ever fail? If it does, and we leave
+ the descriptor open in child processes, then any
+ process on the system will be able to write to
+ /dev/initctl and have us execute arbitrary commands
+ as root. So let's refuse to use the fifo in this
+ case. */
+ close(initctl_fd);
+ initctl_fd = -1;
+ }

if ( want_single || (access (_PATH_SINGLE, R_OK) == 0) ) do_single ();

Currently we are not aware of any vendor-supplied patches for this issue. If you feel we are in error or are aware of more recent information, please mail us at: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>.


Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p1

Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p2

Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p3

Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2 p4-gnomepanelsupport

Alvaro Lopes wmnetmon 0.2

References

Richard Gooch SimpleInit Open File Descriptor Vulnerability

References:

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