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Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:26:42 +0200
From: Solar Designer <solar@...nwall.com>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Cc: Zdenek Dohnal <zdohnal@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: CVE-2023-4504 cups, libppd: Postscript parsing heap-based buffer overflow

Hi,

"Snippet of the vulnerable code" got badly misformatted in the
text/plain version of Zdenek's message.  I include a properly formatted
snippet below, extracted from the text/html version.

Alexander

On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 02:56:51PM +0200, Zdenek Dohnal wrote:
> there is the same vulnerability in CUPS and libppd projects.
> 
> The original CUPS report:
> 
> 
>  CVE-2023-4504: OpenPrinting CUPS Postscript Parsing Heap Overflow
> 
> AHA! <https://takeonme.org/> has discovered an issue with CUPS from 
> OpenPrinting, and is publishing
> this disclosure in accordance with AHA!'s standard disclosure policy 
> <https://takeonme.org/cve.html> today,
> on $DATE. CVE-2023-4504 <https://takeonme.org/cves/CVE-2023-4504.html> 
> has been assigned to this issue.
> 
> Any questions about this disclosure should be directed to
> *cve@...eonme.org*.
> 
> 
>  Executive Summary
> 
> Due to failure in validating the length provided by an attacker-crafted 
> CUPS document, CUPS version v2.5b1 and prior, by default, is susceptible 
> to a heap-based buffer overflow, and possibly code execution. 
> CVE-2023-4504 <https://takeonme.org/cves/CVE-2023-4504.html> appears to 
> be an instance of CWE-122 
> <https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/122.html>, a heap-based buffer 
> overflow.
> 
> 
>  Technical Details
> 
> The |scan_ps| function in the CUPS codebase provides functionality that 
> scans through a string looking for the next Postscript object. When 
> iterating through a string which contains an open parenthesis and ends 
> with a single backslash (0x5c) character, the code incorrectly iterates 
> forward a character without properly checking the bounds of the string 
> resulting in a 1 byte read beyond the allocated heap buffer.
> 
> Snippet of the vulnerable code:
> 
> cups/cups/raster-interpret.c

 1039 static _cups_ps_obj_t   *               /* O  - New object or NULL on EOF */
 1040 scan_ps(_cups_ps_stack_t *st,           /* I  - Stack */
 1041         char             **ptr)         /* IO - String pointer */
 1042 {
 ...
 1085   switch (*cur)
 1086   {
 1087     case '(' :                          /* (string) */
 1088         obj.type = CUPS_PS_STRING;
 1089         start    = cur;
 1090
 1091         for (cur ++, parens = 1, valptr = obj.value.string,
 1092                  valend = obj.value.string + sizeof(obj.value.string) - 1;
 1093              *cur;
 1094              cur ++)
 1095         {
 1096           if (*cur == ')' && parens == 1)
 1097             break;
 1098
 1099           if (*cur == '(')
 1100             parens ++;
 1101           else if (*cur == ')')
 1102             parens --;
 1103
 1104           if (valptr >= valend)
 1105           {
 1106             *ptr = start;
 1107
 1108             return (NULL);
 1109           }
 1110
 1111           if (*cur == '\\')
 1112           {
 1113            /*
 1114             * Decode escaped character...
 1115             */
 1116
 1117             cur ++;
 1118
 1119             if (*cur == 'b')
 1120               *valptr++ = '\b';
 1121             else if (*cur == 'f')
 1122               *valptr++ = '\f';
 1123             else if (*cur == 'n')
 1124               *valptr++ = '\n';
 1125             else if (*cur == 'r')
 1126               *valptr++ = '\r';
 1127             else if (*cur == 't')
 1128               *valptr++ = '\t';
 1129             else if (*cur >= '0' && *cur <= '7')
 1130             {
 1131               int ch = *cur - '0';
 1132
 1133               if (cur[1] >= '0' && cur[1] <= '7')
 1134               {
 1135                 cur ++;
 1136                 ch = (ch << 3) + *cur - '0';
 1137               }
 1138
 1139               if (cur[1] >= '0' && cur[1] <= '7')
 1140               {
 1141                 cur ++;
 1142                 ch = (ch << 3) + *cur - '0';
 1143               }
 1144
 1145               *valptr++ = (char)ch;
 1146             }
 1147             else if (*cur == '\r')
 1148             {
 1149               if (cur[1] == '\n')
 1150                 cur ++;
 1151             }
 1152             else if (*cur != '\n')
 1153               *valptr++ = *cur;
 1154           }
 1155           else
 1156             *valptr++ = *cur;
 1157         }

> Line 1085 contains the case statement which provides the logic used to 
> iterate through the given string.
> 
> On line 1091, the for loop within the case statement is used to iterate 
> through each character after encountering an open paranthesis character 
> (0x28), storing the pointer to the current character in |cur|.
> 
> On line 1111, the code checks if the current character is a backslash 
> and finally, in line 1117, the character index is incremented without 
> checking the length, now pointing to the null byte terminating the string.
> 
> Upon the next iteration of the loop, on line 1094, the loop now begins 
> iterating through unallocated memory resulting in undefined behaviour.
> 
> A Base64 encoded blob of an example PostScript document that can trigger 
> the issue is below.
> 
> |L///KFwAY3V1ZQ== |
> 
> 
>  Attacker Value
> 
> By providing this malformed PostScript document, an attacker could 
> compromise the machine running the software. Once compromised, this can 
> provide an attacker a unique, privileged position in the targeted network.
> 
> 
>  Credit
> 
> This issue is being disclosed through the AHA! CNA and is credited to: 
> zenofex <https://mastodon.social/@zenofex> and WanderingGlitch 
> <https://infosec.exchange/@WanderingGlitch>
> 
> CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:N
> 
> ========================================================================================
> 
> *Notes:*
> 
> - I've tried to reproduce the issue with any filter and PPD using the 
> code, but I didn't get crash nor valgrind report - maybe ASAN could show 
> the vulnerability, but I haven't tried this.
> 
> - the vulnerability should show up when you send the postscript string 
> above to a printer which requires cups-raster format (the vulnerable 
> code is in path when you convert postscript to raster), which is not 
> common these days - nor sending postscript or producing cups-raster.
> 
> *Updated Notes:*
> 
> I found out the vulnerability should happen only if malformed PostScript 
> sequence is in PPD file, not if the sequence is sent for printing 
> (vulnerable code was in library function used for reading PS sequence 
> which are in PPDs).
> 
> *Commits fixing the issue:*
> 
> cups: https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/commit/2431caddb7e6
> 
> libppd: https://github.com/OpenPrinting/libppd/commit/262c909ac5
> 
> 
> Have a nice day,
> 
> 
> Zdenek Dohnal
> 
> CUPS 2.4.x release manager
> 
> 
> -- 
> Zdenek Dohnal
> Senior Software Engineer
> Red Hat, BRQ-TPBC

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