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Date:      Wed, 18 Jul 2001 17:10:38 -0400
From:      "Joseph Gleason" <clash@tasam.com>
To:        <freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Fw: remote root vulnerability
Message-ID:  <002b01c10fce$18317aa0$0b2d2d0a@battleship>

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Anyone know if this is real?  I received it from a source I don't have any
strong reason to trust.


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> - ------
>
> TESO Security Advisory
> 06/10/2001
>
> Multiple vendor Telnet Daemon vulnerability
>
>
> Summary
> ===================
>
>     Within most of the current telnet daemons in use today there exist a
buffer
>     overflow in the telnet option handling. Under certain circumstances it
may
>     be possible to exploit it to gain root priviledges remotely.
>
>
> Systems Affected
> ===================
>
>     System                                  | vulnerable   | exploitable *
>     ----------------------------------------+--------------+--------------
----
>     BSDI 4.x default                        |      yes     |       yes
>     FreeBSD [2345].x default                |      yes     |       yes
>     IRIX 6.5                                |      yes     |        no
>     Linux netkit-telnetd < 0.14             |      yes     |        ?
>     Linux netkit-telnetd >= 0.14            |       no     |
>     NetBSD 1.x default                      |      yes     |       yes
>     OpenBSD 2.x                             |      yes     |        ?
>     OpenBSD current                         |       no     |
>     Solaris 2.x sparc                       |      yes     |        ?
>     <almost any other vendor's telnetd>     |      yes     |        ?
>     ----------------------------------------+--------------+--------------
----
>
>     * = From our analysis and conclusions, which may not be correct or we
may
>         have overseen things. Do not rely on this.
>
>     Details about the systems can be found below.
>
>
> Impact
> ===================
>
>     Through sending a specially formed option string to the remote telnet
>     daemon a remote attacker might be able to overwrite sensitive
information
>     on the static memory pages. If done properly this may result in
arbitrary
>     code getting executed on the remote machine under the priviledges the
>     telnet daemon runs on, usually root.
>
>
> Explanation
> ===================
>
>     Within every BSD derived telnet daemon under UNIX the telnet options
are
>     processed by the 'telrcv' function. This function parses the options
>     according to the telnet protocol and its internal state. During this
>     parsing the results which should be send back to the client are stored
>     within the 'netobuf' buffer. This is done without any bounds checking,
>     since it is assumed that the reply data is smaller than the buffer
size
>     (which is BUFSIZ bytes, usually).
>
>     However, using a combination of options, especially the 'AYT' Are You
There
>     option, it is possible to append data to the buffer, usually nine
bytes
>     long. To trigger this response, two bytes in the input buffer are
>     necessary. Since this input buffer is BUFSIZ bytes long, you can
exceed the
>     output buffer by as much as (BUFSIZ / 2) * 9) - BUFSIZ bytes. For the
>     common case that BUFSIZ is defined to be 1024, this results in a
buffer
>     overflow by up to 3584 bytes.  On systems where BUFSIZ is defined to
be
>     4096, this is an even greater value (14336).
>
>     Due to the limited set of characters an attacker is able to write
outside
>     of the buffer it is difficult - if not impossible on some systems - to
>     exploit this buffer overflow. Another hurdle for a possible attacker
may be
>     the lack of interesting information to modify after the buffer.
>
>     This buffer overflow should be considered serious nevertheless, since
>     experience has shown that even complicated vulnerabilities can be
>     exploited by skilled attackers, BIND TSIG and SSH deattack come to
mind.
>
>     We have constructed a working exploit for any version of BSDI, NetBSD
and
>     FreeBSD. Exploitation on Solaris sparc may be possible but if it is,
it is
>     very difficult involving lots of arcane tricks. OpenBSD is not as
easily
>     exploitable as the other BSD's, because they do compile with other
>     options by default, changing memory layout.
>
>
> Solution
> ===================
>
>     The vendors have been notified of the problem at the same time as the
>     general public, vendor patches for your telnet daemon that fix the bug
will
>     show up soon.
>
>     Sometimes a fix might not be trivial and require a lot of changes to
the
>     source code, due to the insecure nature the 'nfrontp' pointer is
handled.
>     The best long term solution is to disable the telnet daemon at all,
since
>     there are good and free replacements.
>
>
> Acknowledgements
> ===================
>
>     The bug has been discovered by scut.
>
>     The tests and further analysis were done by smiler, lorian, zip and
scut.
>
>
> Contact Information
> ===================
>
>     The TESO crew can be reached by mailing to teso@team-teso.net
>     Our web page is at http://www.team-teso.net/
>
>
> References
> ===================
>
>     [1] TESO
>         http://www.team-teso.net/
>
>
> Disclaimer
> ===================
>
>     This advisory does not claim to be complete or to be usable for any
>     purpose. Especially information on the vulnerable systems may be
inaccurate
>     or wrong. Possibly supplied exploit code is not to be used for
malicious
>     purposes, but for educational purposes only.
>
>     This advisory is free for open distribution in unmodified form.
>     Articles that are based on information from this advisory should
include
>     link [1].
>
>
> Exploit
> ===================
>
>     Not this time. Not here.
>
> - ------
>
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