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Date:      Mon, 2 Nov 1998 13:21:49 -0800 (PST)
From:      Christopher Nielsen <enkhyl@scient.com>
To:        Peter Jeremy <peter.jeremy@auss2.alcatel.com.au>
Cc:        freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG, winter@jurai.net
Subject:   Re: SSH vsprintf patch. (You've been warned Mr. Glass)
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.05.9811021317410.442-100000@ender.sf.scient.com>
In-Reply-To: <98Nov2.132551est.40330@border.alcanet.com.au>

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On Mon, 2 Nov 1998, Peter Jeremy wrote:

> Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 13:26:18 +1100
> From: Peter Jeremy <peter.jeremy@auss2.alcatel.com.au>
> To: freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG, winter@jurai.net
> Subject: Re: SSH vsprintf patch. (You've been warned Mr. Glass)
> 
> "Matthew N. Dodd" <winter@jurai.net> wrote:
> >  At this point there isn't any reason not to go about fixing these
> >potential problems though.
> 
> ssh also contains a large number of sprintf() calls.  Not all of these
> are immediately innocuous.  There are also 2 sscanf() calls with %s
> formats which could be dangerous.  Not to mention the str[n]cat() and
> str[n]cpy() calls.  Unfortunately I have another bushfire to worry
> about right now, or I'd check through them as well.
> 
> The problem with C is that there are too many ways to shoot yourself
> in the foot...  A full security audit on ssh (which it sounds like it
> might need) would be fairly time-consuming.

It might be time better spent rewriting SSH. SSH 1.2.x is suffering from
serious bloat, IMHO. Yes, I know about version 2.x; I'm just not
particularly happy with the license.

-- 
Christopher Nielsen
Scient: The Art and Science of Electronic Business
<http://www.scient.com>;
cnielsen@scient.com


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