RXVT Window Title Reporting Escape Sequence Command Execution Vulnerability

BID:6953

Info

RXVT Window Title Reporting Escape Sequence Command Execution Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 6953
Class: Design Error
CVE: CVE-2003-0066
Remote: Yes
Local: No
Published: Feb 24 2003 12:00AM
Updated: Jul 11 2009 08:06PM
Credit: Discovery of these issues is credited to H D Moore and Digital Defense.
Vulnerable: rxvt rxvt 2.7.8
rxvt rxvt 2.7.7
rxvt rxvt 2.7.6
rxvt rxvt 2.7.5
rxvt rxvt 2.6.4
rxvt rxvt 2.6.3
rxvt rxvt 2.6.2
- Debian Linux 2.2 sparc
 - Debian Linux 2.2 powerpc
 - Debian Linux 2.2 arm
 - Debian Linux 2.2 alpha
 - Debian Linux 2.2 68k
 - Debian Linux 2.2
rxvt rxvt 2.6.1
- Immunix Immunix OS 7.0 beta
 - Immunix Immunix OS 7.0
- Immunix Immunix OS 6.2
Not Vulnerable: rxvt rxvt 2.7.10

Discussion

RXVT Window Title Reporting Escape Sequence Command Execution Vulnerability

rxvt's window title reporting feature may be abused to execute arbitrary commands on the system running the vulnerable terminal emulator. The terminal software supports escape sequences which can change the title of a terminal window and then report the title back to the command line. In this manner, an attacker can inject malicious escape sequences which include arbitrary commands in the terminal window title and then cause the commands to be displayed on the command line.

It is possible to exploit this issue if an attacker can cause malicious escape sequences to be displayed in a terminal window of a vulnerable terminal emulator. Exploitation will still require the user to press 'Enter' once the malicious commands are dumped from the window title to the command line. Other emulator features may be used to obfuscate the attack and trick the user into pressing 'Enter'.

Exploit / POC

RXVT Window Title Reporting Escape Sequence Command Execution Vulnerability

There is no exploit code required.

Solution / Fix

RXVT Window Title Reporting Escape Sequence Command Execution Vulnerability

Solution:
Gentoo Linux has released an advisory. Users who have installed x11-terms/rxvt are advised to upgrade to rxvt-2.7.8-r6 by issuing the following commands:

emerge sync
emerge rxvt
emerge clean

Mandrake has released a security advisory (MDKSA-2003:034) which contains fixes for this issue. Users are advised to upgrade as soon as possible.

Fixes available:


rxvt rxvt 2.6.1

rxvt rxvt 2.6.2

rxvt rxvt 2.6.3

rxvt rxvt 2.6.4

rxvt rxvt 2.7.5

rxvt rxvt 2.7.6

rxvt rxvt 2.7.7

rxvt rxvt 2.7.8

References

RXVT Window Title Reporting Escape Sequence Command Execution Vulnerability

References:

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