Vulnerabilities > CVE-2012-0201 - Improper Restriction of Operations Within the Bounds of A Memory Buffer vulnerability in IBM Personal Communications 5.9.7.0/5.9.7.1/6.0.3.0

047910
CVSS 9.3 - CRITICAL
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
MEDIUM
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
COMPLETE
Integrity impact
COMPLETE
Availability impact
COMPLETE
network
ibm
CWE-119
critical
exploit available
metasploit

Summary

Stack-based buffer overflow in pcspref.dll in pcsws.exe in IBM Personal Communications 5.9.x before 5.9.8 and 6.0.x before 6.0.4 might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long profile string in a WorkStation (aka .ws) file.

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.
  • Overflow Buffers
    Buffer Overflow attacks target improper or missing bounds checking on buffer operations, typically triggered by input injected by an attacker. As a consequence, an attacker is able to write past the boundaries of allocated buffer regions in memory, causing a program crash or potentially redirection of execution as per the attackers' choice.
  • Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow
    This type of attack exploits a buffer overflow vulnerability in targeted client software through injection of malicious content from a custom-built hostile service.
  • Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow
    In this attack, the idea is to cause an active filter to fail by causing an oversized transaction. An attacker may try to feed overly long input strings to the program in an attempt to overwhelm the filter (by causing a buffer overflow) and hoping that the filter does not fail securely (i.e. the user input is let into the system unfiltered).
  • MIME Conversion
    An attacker exploits a weakness in the MIME conversion routine to cause a buffer overflow and gain control over the mail server machine. The MIME system is designed to allow various different information formats to be interpreted and sent via e-mail. Attack points exist when data are converted to MIME compatible format and back.

Exploit-Db

descriptionIBM Personal Communications I-Series Access WorkStation 5.9 Profile. CVE-2012-0201. Remote exploit for windows platform
fileexploits/windows/remote/18539.rb
idEDB-ID:18539
last seen2016-02-02
modified2012-02-29
platformwindows
port
published2012-02-29
reportermetasploit
sourcehttps://www.exploit-db.com/download/18539/
titleIBM Personal Communications I-Series Access WorkStation 5.9 Profile
typeremote

Metasploit

descriptionThe IBM Personal Communications I-Series application WorkStation is susceptible to a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability within file parsing in which data copied to a location in memory exceeds the size of the reserved destination area. The buffer is located on the runtime program stack. When the WorkStation file is opened it will reach the code path at 0x67575180 located in pcspref.dll which conducts string manipulation and validation on the data supplied in the WorkStation file. The application will first check if 'Profile' header exists and appends a dot with the next parameter within the file. It will then measure the character length of the header by calling strcspn with a dot as its null-terminated character. It will then write the header into memory and ensure the header ends with a NUL character. The parameter character array is passed to the strcpy() function. The application has declared a 52-element character array for the destination for strcpy function. The function does not perform bounds checking therefore, data can be written paste the end of the buffer variable resulting in corruption of adjacent variables including other local variables, program state information and function arguments. You will notice that the saved RETURN address at offset 0x6c is overwritten by the data written past the buffer. To ensure we can perform arbitrary code execution we must we provide a valid pointer at 0x74 which is used as an argument for the called function at 0x675751ED as an id file extension parameter. Once the caller regains control we will reach our RETURN. The Ret instruction will be used to pop the overwritten saved return address which was corrupted. This exploit has been written to bypass 2 mitigations DEP and ASLR on a Windows platform. Versions tested: IBM System i Access for Windows V6R1M0 version 06.01.0001.0000a Which bundles pcsws.exe version 5090.27271.709 Tested on: Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] Microsoft Windows Vista [Version 6.0.6002] Microsoft Windows 7 [Version 6.1.7600]
idMSF:EXPLOIT/WINDOWS/FILEFORMAT/IBM_PCM_WS
last seen2020-06-01
modified2017-09-14
published2012-02-29
references
reporterRapid7
sourcehttps://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master//modules/exploits/windows/fileformat/ibm_pcm_ws.rb
titleIBM Personal Communications iSeries Access WorkStation 5.9 Profile

Packetstorm

data sourcehttps://packetstormsecurity.com/files/download/110295/ibm_pcm_ws.rb.txt
idPACKETSTORM:110295
last seen2016-12-05
published2012-02-29
reporterTecR0c
sourcehttps://packetstormsecurity.com/files/110295/IBM-Personal-Communications-I-Series-Buffer-Overflow.html
titleIBM Personal Communications I-Series Buffer Overflow