Exim Internet Mailer Format String Vulnerability

BID:6314

Info

Exim Internet Mailer Format String Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 6314
Class: Input Validation Error
CVE:
Remote: No
Local: Yes
Published: Dec 04 2002 12:00AM
Updated: Dec 04 2002 12:00AM
Credit: Discovery of this vulnerability is credited to Thomas Wana <[email protected]>.
Vulnerable: University of Cambridge Exim 4.10
University of Cambridge Exim 3.36
University of Cambridge Exim 3.35
+ Debian Linux 3.0 sparc
+ Debian Linux 3.0 s/390
+ Debian Linux 3.0 ppc
+ Debian Linux 3.0 mipsel
+ Debian Linux 3.0 mips
+ Debian Linux 3.0 m68k
+ Debian Linux 3.0 ia-64
+ Debian Linux 3.0 ia-32
+ Debian Linux 3.0 hppa
+ Debian Linux 3.0 arm
+ Debian Linux 3.0 alpha
+ Debian Linux 3.0
Not Vulnerable:

Discussion

Exim Internet Mailer Format String Vulnerability

A format string vulnerability has been discovered in Exim. The problem occurs in the daemon_go() function. By supplying malicious format strings via the command line, it is possible for an attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.

It should be noted that the execution of the daemon_go() function is limited to the user defined as the 'exim-admin-user'. The 'exim-admin-user' must be defined at compile time.

Exploit / POC

Exim Internet Mailer Format String Vulnerability

An exploit has been written and publically released.

Solution / Fix

Exim Internet Mailer Format String Vulnerability

Solution:
The vendor has released patches that address this issue. Users are advised to upgrade as soon as possible.

Gentoo Linux has released an advisory. Users who have installed net-mail/exim-4.05 and earlier are advised to update their systems by issuing the following commands:

emerge rsync
emerge exim
emerge clean

Patches available:


University of Cambridge Exim 3.36

University of Cambridge Exim 4.10

References

Exim Internet Mailer Format String Vulnerability

References:

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