Title:        Microsoft Visual C++ 8.0 standard library time functions
              invalid assertion DoS (Problem 3000).
Product:      Visual Studio 2005
Vendor:       Microsoft
Vulnerability
class:        Denial of Service
Remote:       application dependant, remote vector is possible
CVE:          CVE-2007-0842
Author: 3APA3A, http://SecurityVulns.com/ 
Advisory URL: http://SecurityVulns.com/advisories/year3000.asp 

Intro:

Since  Microsoft  Visual Studio 5.0, Visual C++ compiler defaults time_t
type to 64 bit integer and time functions to their 64-bit variants.

Vulnerability:

64-bit versions of time  functions:

localtime()
localtime_s()

gmtime()
gmtime_s()

ctime()
ctime_s()
wctime()
wctime_s()

fstat()

and  may  be others

incorrectly  behave  for  a  time_t  argument  larger  than  or equal to
_MAX__TIME64_T  (representing  January,  1  3000 00:00:00). According to
MSDN documentation, time functions must indicate error by returning NULL
pointer  or EINVAL (depending on function class) and must not invoke any
invalid   parameter   handler.  Instead,  time  function  calls  invalid
parameter  assert()-like  macro,  terminating  calling  application  and
creating Denial of Service condition for calling application.

An example is within localtime_s function (loctim64.c):


        /*
         * Check for illegal __time64_t value
         */
        _VALIDATE_RETURN_ERRCODE_NOEXC( (*ptime >= 0), EINVAL);
        _VALIDATE_RETURN_ERRCODE( (*ptime <= _MAX__TIME64_T), EINVAL);

Last       string       initiates      assertion,      it's      invalid
_VALIDATE_RETURN_ERRCODE_NOEXC  must  be  used  for  both  negative  and
oversized value. Valid code is:

        /*
         * Check for illegal __time64_t value
         */
        _VALIDATE_RETURN_ERRCODE_NOEXC( (*ptime >= 0), EINVAL);
        _VALIDATE_RETURN_ERRCODE_NOEXC( (*ptime <= _MAX__TIME64_T), EINVAL);

Both  static  and  dynamic  (MSVCR80.DLL)  versions  of  C  library  are
vulnerable.
        

Who is vulnerable?

Any  application  compiled  with  Microsoft Visual C++ 8.0 compiler with
either  static  or  dynamic  libraries  is vulnerable, if it uses one of
named  functions  with user-controlled data.

Possible attack vectors:

1.  Network protocols and applications where time_t value is used and/or
transmitted  as  8-octets (64 bit) in seconds or milliseconds and can be
behind January, 1, 3000. Example: different SQL databases.

2.  Windows  applications  where  time_t  is  result  of conversion from
FILETIME   or   SYSTEMTIME  structures.  E.  g.  GetFileTime/SetFileTime
functions  can  be  used  to  get/set  NTFS  file  time to values behind
January, 1, 3000. You can try to exploit different applications by using
this  very  simple  trick.  This  is  also  true for Java and JavaScript
timestamps.

3.  Application where date_t is calculated as a result from user input +
some  offset (e.g. timezone conversions for date December, 29 2999 23:01
GMT-01:00). An example: e-mail messages, HTTP requests, etc.

Example of vulnerable application:

/*

D:\>cl localtime_s.c
Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 14.00.50727.42 for 80x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

localtime_s.c
Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 8.00.50727.42
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

/out:localtime_s.exe
localtime_s.obj

D:\>localtime_s.exe

(Dr.Watson comes, expected result: "Invalid value")
*/

#include 
#include 
#include 

int main(){
        struct tm tm;
        time_t t = 0x3a3a3a3a3a3a3a3a;

        if(localtime_s(&tm, &t) != 0) {
                printf("Invalid value\n");
        }
        else {
                printf("OK\n");
        }
        return 0;
}


Workarounds:

Developer can use one if this workarounds:

1.  Define  _USE_32BIT_TIME_T  to use 32-bit functions (not available on
    64-bit platforms).
2.  Explicitly  check  'time'  argument  of  named functions to be below
    _MAX__TIME64_T.  It  should  be  noted,  that this workaround is not
    reliable,   because   it  doesn't  covers the vector where time_t is
    calculated as a result of time arithmetics.

Exploitation:

Test  application  to set file date to 27.09.14896 3touch.c is available
from http://SecurityVulns.com/news/MICROSOFT/Time/Assert.html. 

Application compiled with MSVC 8.0, e.g. MSDN sample fstat.c, crashes on
attempt to fstat() this file.

It may also be used to get interesting results with "dir" command (shows
"Invalid  argument")  if FILETIME is changed to 0x7FFFFF00, but it seems
to be different issue.

Vendor:

23.08.2006 Initial vendor notification through secure@microsoft.com 
25.08.2006    Second vendor notification
25.08.2006    Initial vendor reply
30.08.2006    Vendor asks for additional details
31.08.2006    Additional  details  with example of crashing application
              are sent to vendor
12.09.2006    Additional details are sent again because of no response
11.10.2006    Vendor response:

"We  believe  this  is  not  a  security  vulnerability  but  in  fact a
deliberate  security  feature  to  mitigate  problems  with invalid data
propagating through the system".