[<prev] [next>] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:33:38 -0700
From: Alan Coopersmith <alan.coopersmith@...cle.com>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: CERT VU#123335: Multiple Programming Languages Fail to Escape
Arguments Properly in Microsoft Windows
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/123335 announces:
> Vulnerability Note VU#123335
> Original Release Date: 2024-04-10 | Last Revised: 2024-04-10
>
> Overview
> ========
>
> Various programming languages lack proper validation mechanisms for
> commands and in some cases also fail to escape arguments correctly
> when invoking commands within a Microsoft Windows environment. The
> command injection vulnerability in these programming languages, when
> running on Windows, allows attackers to execute arbitrary code
> disguised as arguments to the command. This vulnerability may also
> affect the application that executes commands without specifying the
> file extension.
>
> Description
> ===========
>
> Programming languages typically provide a way to execute commands (for
> e.g., os/exec in Golang) on the operating system to facilitate
> interaction with the OS. Typically, the programming languages also
> allow for passing arguments which are considered data (or variables)
> for the command to be executed. The arguments themselves are expected
> to be not executable and the command is expected to be executed along
> with properly escaped arguments, as inputs to the command. Microsoft
> Windows typically processes these commands using a CreateProcess
> function that spawns a cmd.exe for execution of the command. Microsoft
> Windows has documented some of the concerns related to how these
> should be properly escaped before execution as early as 2011. See
> <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/twistylittlepassagesallalike/everyone-quotes-command-line-arguments-the-wrong-way>.
>
> A vulnerability was discovered in the way multiple programming
> languages fail to properly escape the arguments in a Microsoft Windows
> command execution environment. This can lead confusion at execution
> time where an expected argument for a command could be executed as
> another command itself. An attacker with knowledge of the programming
> language can carefully craft inputs that will be processed by the
> compiled program as commands. This unexpected behavior is due to lack
> of neutralization of arguments by the programming language (or its
> command execution module) that initiates a Windows execution
> environment. The researcher has found multiple programming languages,
> and their command execution modules fail to perform such sanitization
> and/or validation before processing these in their runtime
> environment.
>
> Impact
> ======
>
> Successful exploitation of this vulnerability permits an attacker to
> execute arbitrary commands. The complete impact of this vulnerability
> depends on the implementation that uses a vulnerable programming
> language or such a vulnerable module.
>
> Solution
> ========
>
> Updating the runtime environment
> --------------------------------
>
> Please visit the Vendor Information section to see if your programming
> language Vendor has released the patch for this vulnerability and
> update the runtime environment that can prevent abuse of this
> vulnerability.
>
> Update the programs and escape manually
> ---------------------------------------
>
> If the runtime of your application doesn't provide a patch for this
> vulnerability and you want to execute batch files with user-controlled
> arguments, you will need to perform the escaping and neutralization of
> the data to prevent any intended command execution.
>
> Security researcher has more detailed information in the blog post
> which provides details on specific languages that were identified and
> their Status.
We've already seen some of the updates on this mailing list, including
notices for Rust & node.js. For other languages, see the info on
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/123335#vendor-information and
https://flatt.tech/research/posts/batbadbut-you-cant-securely-execute-commands-on-windows/
--
-Alan Coopersmith- alan.coopersmith@...cle.com
Oracle Solaris Engineering - https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris
Powered by blists - more mailing lists
Please check out the
Open Source Software Security Wiki, which is counterpart to this
mailing list.
Confused about mailing lists and their use?
Read about mailing lists on Wikipedia
and check out these
guidelines on proper formatting of your messages.
