Vulnerabilities > CVE-2008-3533 - USE of Externally-Controlled Format String vulnerability in Gnome and Yelp
Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
LOW Privileges required
NONE Confidentiality impact
COMPLETE Integrity impact
COMPLETE Availability impact
COMPLETE Summary
Format string vulnerability in the window_error function in yelp-window.c in yelp in Gnome after 2.19.90 and before 2.24 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via format string specifiers in an invalid URI on the command line, as demonstrated by use of yelp within (1) man or (2) ghelp URI handlers in Firefox, Evolution, and unspecified other programs.
Vulnerable Configurations
Part | Description | Count |
---|---|---|
Application | 3 |
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Format String Injection An attacker includes formatting characters in a string input field on the target application. Most applications assume that users will provide static text and may respond unpredictably to the presence of formatting character. For example, in certain functions of the C programming languages such as printf, the formatting character %s will print the contents of a memory location expecting this location to identify a string and the formatting character %n prints the number of DWORD written in the memory. An attacker can use this to read or write to memory locations or files, or simply to manipulate the value of the resulting text in unexpected ways. Reading or writing memory may result in program crashes and writing memory could result in the execution of arbitrary code if the attacker can write to the program stack.
- String Format Overflow in syslog() This attack targets the format string vulnerabilities in the syslog() function. An attacker would typically inject malicious input in the format string parameter of the syslog function. This is a common problem, and many public vulnerabilities and associated exploits have been posted.
Exploit-Db
description | Yelp 2.23.1 Invalid URI Format String Vulnerability. CVE-2008-3533. Dos exploit for linux platform |
id | EDB-ID:32248 |
last seen | 2016-02-03 |
modified | 2008-08-13 |
published | 2008-08-13 |
reporter | Aaron Grattafiori |
source | https://www.exploit-db.com/download/32248/ |
title | Yelp 2.23.1 Invalid URI Format String Vulnerability |
Nessus
NASL family Gentoo Local Security Checks NASL id GENTOO_GLSA-200809-01.NASL description The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200809-01 (yelp: User-assisted execution of arbitrary code) Aaron Grattafiori reported a format string vulnerability in the window_error() function in yelp-window.c. Impact : A remote attacker can entice a user to open specially crafted last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 34090 published 2008-09-05 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2008-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/34090 title GLSA-200809-01 : yelp: User-assisted execution of arbitrary code NASL family Fedora Local Security Checks NASL id FEDORA_2008-7293.NASL description This update fixes a format string vulnerability that was discovered in yelp 2.20. Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 34126 published 2008-09-10 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2008-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/34126 title Fedora 8 : yelp-2.20.0-12.fc8 (2008-7293) NASL family SuSE Local Security Checks NASL id SUSE_11_0_YELP-081024.NASL description This update of yelp fixes a format string bug. (CVE-2008-3533) last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 40162 published 2009-07-21 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/40162 title openSUSE Security Update : yelp (yelp-271) NASL family Mandriva Local Security Checks NASL id MANDRIVA_MDVSA-2008-175.NASL description A format string vulnerability was discovered in yelp after version 2.19.90 and before 2.24 that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via format string specifiers in an invalid URI on the command-line or via URI helpers in Firefox, Evolution, or possibly other programs (CVE-2008-3533). The updated packages have been patched to correct this issue. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 37661 published 2009-04-23 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/37661 title Mandriva Linux Security Advisory : yelp (MDVSA-2008:175) NASL family Ubuntu Local Security Checks NASL id UBUNTU_USN-638-1.NASL description Aaron Grattafiori discovered that the Gnome Help Viewer did not handle format strings correctly when displaying certain error messages. If a user were tricked into opening a specially crafted URI, a remote attacker could execute arbitrary code with user privileges. Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 34059 published 2008-08-28 reporter Ubuntu Security Notice (C) 2008-2019 Canonical, Inc. / NASL script (C) 2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/34059 title Ubuntu 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : yelp vulnerability (USN-638-1)
Statements
contributor | Joshua Bressers |
lastmodified | 2008-08-19 |
organization | Red Hat |
statement | This issue does not affect the versions of the yelp package, as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4 and 5. |
References
- http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=115890
- http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=546364
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-11/msg00000.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/31465
- http://secunia.com/advisories/31620
- http://secunia.com/advisories/31834
- http://secunia.com/advisories/32629
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2008:175
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/30690
- http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-638-1
- http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2008/2393
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+bug/254860
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/44449
- https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-September/msg00222.html