Vulnerabilities > CVE-2010-1167 - Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Fetchmail

047910
CVSS 4.3 - MEDIUM
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
MEDIUM
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
NONE
Integrity impact
NONE
Availability impact
PARTIAL
network
fetchmail
CWE-20
nessus

Summary

fetchmail 4.6.3 through 6.3.16, when debug mode is enabled, does not properly handle invalid characters in a multi-character locale, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and application crash) via a crafted (1) message header or (2) POP3 UIDL list.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Fetchmail
112

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables
    This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the attacker finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
  • Server Side Include (SSI) Injection
    An attacker can use Server Side Include (SSI) Injection to send code to a web application that then gets executed by the web server. Doing so enables the attacker to achieve similar results to Cross Site Scripting, viz., arbitrary code execution and information disclosure, albeit on a more limited scale, since the SSI directives are nowhere near as powerful as a full-fledged scripting language. Nonetheless, the attacker can conveniently gain access to sensitive files, such as password files, and execute shell commands.
  • Cross Zone Scripting
    An attacker is able to cause a victim to load content into their web-browser that bypasses security zone controls and gain access to increased privileges to execute scripting code or other web objects such as unsigned ActiveX controls or applets. This is a privilege elevation attack targeted at zone-based web-browser security. In a zone-based model, pages belong to one of a set of zones corresponding to the level of privilege assigned to that page. Pages in an untrusted zone would have a lesser level of access to the system and/or be restricted in the types of executable content it was allowed to invoke. In a cross-zone scripting attack, a page that should be assigned to a less privileged zone is granted the privileges of a more trusted zone. This can be accomplished by exploiting bugs in the browser, exploiting incorrect configuration in the zone controls, through a cross-site scripting attack that causes the attackers' content to be treated as coming from a more trusted page, or by leveraging some piece of system functionality that is accessible from both the trusted and less trusted zone. This attack differs from "Restful Privilege Escalation" in that the latter correlates to the inadequate securing of RESTful access methods (such as HTTP DELETE) on the server, while cross-zone scripting attacks the concept of security zones as implemented by a browser.
  • Cross Site Scripting through Log Files
    An attacker may leverage a system weakness where logs are susceptible to log injection to insert scripts into the system's logs. If these logs are later viewed by an administrator through a thin administrative interface and the log data is not properly HTML encoded before being written to the page, the attackers' scripts stored in the log will be executed in the administrative interface with potentially serious consequences. This attack pattern is really a combination of two other attack patterns: log injection and stored cross site scripting.
  • Command Line Execution through SQL Injection
    An attacker uses standard SQL injection methods to inject data into the command line for execution. This could be done directly through misuse of directives such as MSSQL_xp_cmdshell or indirectly through injection of data into the database that would be interpreted as shell commands. Sometime later, an unscrupulous backend application (or could be part of the functionality of the same application) fetches the injected data stored in the database and uses this data as command line arguments without performing proper validation. The malicious data escapes that data plane by spawning new commands to be executed on the host.

Nessus

  • NASL familyFreeBSD Local Security Checks
    NASL idFREEBSD_PKG_09910D764C8211DF83FB0015587E2CC1.NASL
    descriptionFetchmail developer Matthias Andree reported a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to crash the application when it is runs in verbose mode. Fetchmail before release 6.3.17 did not properly sanitize external input (mail headers and UID). When a multi-character locale (such as UTF-8) was in use, this could cause memory exhaustion and thus a denial of service.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id45583
    published2010-04-21
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/45583
    titleFreeBSD : fetchmail -- denial of service vulnerability (09910d76-4c82-11df-83fb-0015587e2cc1)
    code
    #%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80502
    #
    # (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    #
    # The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were  
    # extracted from the FreeBSD VuXML database :
    #
    # Copyright 2003-2018 Jacques Vidrine and contributors
    #
    # Redistribution and use in source (VuXML) and 'compiled' forms (SGML,
    # HTML, PDF, PostScript, RTF and so forth) with or without modification,
    # are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
    # 1. Redistributions of source code (VuXML) must retain the above
    #    copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
    #    disclaimer as the first lines of this file unmodified.
    # 2. Redistributions in compiled form (transformed to other DTDs,
    #    published online in any format, converted to PDF, PostScript,
    #    RTF and other formats) must reproduce the above copyright
    #    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer
    #    in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
    #    distribution.
    # 
    # THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
    # AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
    # THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
    # PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS
    # BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY,
    # OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT
    # OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
    # BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
    # WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
    # OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION,
    # EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
    #
    
    include("compat.inc");
    
    if (description)
    {
      script_id(45583);
      script_version("1.11");
      script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/08/02 13:32:40");
    
      script_cve_id("CVE-2010-1167");
    
      script_name(english:"FreeBSD : fetchmail -- denial of service vulnerability (09910d76-4c82-11df-83fb-0015587e2cc1)");
      script_summary(english:"Checks for updated package in pkg_info output");
    
      script_set_attribute(
        attribute:"synopsis", 
        value:"The remote FreeBSD host is missing a security-related update."
      );
      script_set_attribute(
        attribute:"description", 
        value:
    "Fetchmail developer Matthias Andree reported a vulnerability that
    allows remote attackers to crash the application when it is runs in
    verbose mode.
    
    Fetchmail before release 6.3.17 did not properly sanitize external
    input (mail headers and UID). When a multi-character locale (such as
    UTF-8) was in use, this could cause memory exhaustion and thus a
    denial of service."
      );
      script_set_attribute(
        attribute:"see_also",
        value:"https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=145857"
      );
      # http://gitorious.org/fetchmail/fetchmail/commit/ec06293
      script_set_attribute(
        attribute:"see_also",
        value:"https://gitorious.org/fetchmail/fetchmail/commit/ec06293"
      );
      # http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2010/q2/76
      script_set_attribute(
        attribute:"see_also",
        value:"https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2010/q2/76"
      );
      # https://vuxml.freebsd.org/freebsd/09910d76-4c82-11df-83fb-0015587e2cc1.html
      script_set_attribute(
        attribute:"see_also",
        value:"http://www.nessus.org/u?36a24057"
      );
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:"Update the affected package.");
      script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P");
    
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:fetchmail");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:freebsd:freebsd");
    
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2010/04/18");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2010/04/20");
      script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2010/04/21");
      script_end_attributes();
    
      script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
      script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");
      script_family(english:"FreeBSD Local Security Checks");
    
      script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
      script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/FreeBSD/release", "Host/FreeBSD/pkg_info");
    
      exit(0);
    }
    
    
    include("audit.inc");
    include("freebsd_package.inc");
    
    
    if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
    if (!get_kb_item("Host/FreeBSD/release")) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "FreeBSD");
    if (!get_kb_item("Host/FreeBSD/pkg_info")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);
    
    
    flag = 0;
    
    if (pkg_test(save_report:TRUE, pkg:"fetchmail>=4.6.3<=6.3.16")) flag++;
    
    if (flag)
    {
      if (report_verbosity > 0) security_warning(port:0, extra:pkg_report_get());
      else security_warning(0);
      exit(0);
    }
    else audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, "affected");
    
  • NASL familyMandriva Local Security Checks
    NASL idMANDRIVA_MDVSA-2011-107.NASL
    descriptionMultiple vulnerabilities were discovered and corrected in fetchmail : fetchmail 4.6.3 through 6.3.16, when debug mode is enabled, does not properly handle invalid characters in a multi-character locale, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and application crash) via a crafted (1) message header or (2) POP3 UIDL list (CVE-2010-1167). NOTE: This vulnerability did not affect Mandriva Linux 2010.2. fetchmail 5.9.9 through 6.3.19 does not properly limit the wait time after issuing a (1) STARTTLS or (2) STLS request, which allows remote servers to cause a denial of service (application hang) by acknowledging the request but not sending additional packets (CVE-2011-1947). Packages for 2009.0 are provided as of the Extended Maintenance Program. Please visit this link to learn more: http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?cPath=149 products_id=490 The updated packages have been upgraded to the 6.3.20 version which is not vulnerable to these issues.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id54991
    published2011-06-08
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2011-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/54991
    titleMandriva Linux Security Advisory : fetchmail (MDVSA-2011:107)
  • NASL familySlackware Local Security Checks
    NASL idSLACKWARE_SSA_2010-136-01.NASL
    descriptionNew fetchmail packages are available for Slackware 8.1, 9.0, 9.1, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 11.0, 12.0, 12.1, 12.2, 13.0, and -current to fix a security issue.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id46345
    published2010-05-17
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/46345
    titleSlackware 10.0 / 10.1 / 10.2 / 11.0 / 12.0 / 12.1 / 12.2 / 13.0 / 8.1 / 9.0 / 9.1 / current : fetchmail (SSA:2010-136-01)

Statements

contributorTomas Hoger
lastmodified2010-05-10
organizationRed Hat
statementRed Hat is aware of this issue and is tracking it via the following bug: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2010-1167 The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this issue as having low security impact, a future update may address this flaw.