Vulnerabilities > CVE-2014-9769 - Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer vulnerability in Pcre 8.35

047910
CVSS 7.3 - HIGH
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
LOW
Integrity impact
LOW
Availability impact
LOW
network
low complexity
pcre
CWE-119
nessus

Summary

pcre_jit_compile.c in PCRE 8.35 does not properly use table jumps to optimize nested alternatives, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (stack memory corruption) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted string, as demonstrated by packets encountered by Suricata during use of a regular expression in an Emerging Threats Open ruleset.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Pcre
1

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.

Nessus

NASL familyUbuntu Local Security Checks
NASL idUBUNTU_USN-2943-1.NASL
descriptionIt was discovered that PCRE incorrectly handled certain regular expressions. A remote attacker could use this issue to cause applications using PCRE to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary code. 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 seen2020-06-01
modified2020-06-02
plugin id90306
published2016-04-01
reporterUbuntu Security Notice (C) 2016-2019 Canonical, Inc. / NASL script (C) 2016-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/90306
titleUbuntu 12.04 LTS / 14.04 LTS / 15.10 : pcre3 vulnerabilities (USN-2943-1)
code
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were
# extracted from Ubuntu Security Notice USN-2943-1. The text 
# itself is copyright (C) Canonical, Inc. See 
# <http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/>. Ubuntu(R) is a registered 
# trademark of Canonical, Inc.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(90306);
  script_version("2.9");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/09/18 12:31:45");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2014-9769", "CVE-2015-2325", "CVE-2015-2326", "CVE-2015-2327", "CVE-2015-2328", "CVE-2015-3210", "CVE-2015-5073", "CVE-2015-8380", "CVE-2015-8381", "CVE-2015-8382", "CVE-2015-8383", "CVE-2015-8384", "CVE-2015-8385", "CVE-2015-8386", "CVE-2015-8387", "CVE-2015-8388", "CVE-2015-8389", "CVE-2015-8390", "CVE-2015-8391", "CVE-2015-8392", "CVE-2015-8393", "CVE-2015-8394", "CVE-2015-8395", "CVE-2016-1283", "CVE-2016-3191");
  script_xref(name:"USN", value:"2943-1");

  script_name(english:"Ubuntu 12.04 LTS / 14.04 LTS / 15.10 : pcre3 vulnerabilities (USN-2943-1)");
  script_summary(english:"Checks dpkg output for updated package.");

  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"synopsis", 
    value:"The remote Ubuntu host is missing a security-related patch."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"description", 
    value:
"It was discovered that PCRE incorrectly handled certain regular
expressions. A remote attacker could use this issue to cause
applications using PCRE to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or
possibly execute arbitrary code.

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."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"https://usn.ubuntu.com/2943-1/"
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"solution", 
    value:"Update the affected libpcre3 package."
  );
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:C");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libpcre3");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.10");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2015/12/01");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2016/03/29");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2016/04/01");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_copyright(english:"Ubuntu Security Notice (C) 2016-2019 Canonical, Inc. / NASL script (C) 2016-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");
  script_family(english:"Ubuntu Local Security Checks");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/cpu", "Host/Ubuntu", "Host/Ubuntu/release", "Host/Debian/dpkg-l");

  exit(0);
}


include("audit.inc");
include("ubuntu.inc");
include("misc_func.inc");

if ( ! get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled") ) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
release = get_kb_item("Host/Ubuntu/release");
if ( isnull(release) ) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Ubuntu");
release = chomp(release);
if (! preg(pattern:"^(12\.04|14\.04|15\.10)$", string:release)) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Ubuntu 12.04 / 14.04 / 15.10", "Ubuntu " + release);
if ( ! get_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l") ) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

cpu = get_kb_item("Host/cpu");
if (isnull(cpu)) audit(AUDIT_UNKNOWN_ARCH);
if ("x86_64" >!< cpu && cpu !~ "^i[3-6]86$") audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_IMPLEMENTED, "Ubuntu", cpu);

flag = 0;

if (ubuntu_check(osver:"12.04", pkgname:"libpcre3", pkgver:"8.12-4ubuntu0.2")) flag++;
if (ubuntu_check(osver:"14.04", pkgname:"libpcre3", pkgver:"1:8.31-2ubuntu2.2")) flag++;
if (ubuntu_check(osver:"15.10", pkgname:"libpcre3", pkgver:"2:8.35-7.1ubuntu1.3")) flag++;

if (flag)
{
  security_report_v4(
    port       : 0,
    severity   : SECURITY_HOLE,
    extra      : ubuntu_report_get()
  );
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  tested = ubuntu_pkg_tests_get();
  if (tested) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_AFFECTED, tested);
  else audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_INSTALLED, "libpcre3");
}