Vulnerabilities > CVE-2018-20452 - Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer vulnerability in Libxls Project Libxls 1.4.0
Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
MEDIUM Privileges required
NONE Confidentiality impact
PARTIAL Integrity impact
PARTIAL Availability impact
PARTIAL Summary
The read_MSAT_body function in ole.c in libxls 1.4.0 has an invalid free that allows attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted file, because of inconsistent memory management (new versus free) in ole2_read_header in ole.c.
Vulnerable Configurations
| Part | Description | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Application | 1 |
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.
- 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 family | Gentoo Local Security Checks |
| NASL id | GENTOO_GLSA-202003-64.NASL |
| description | The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-202003-64 (libxls: Multiple vulnerabilities) Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in libxls. Please review the CVE identifiers referenced below for details. Impact : A remote attacker could entice a user to process a specially crafted Excel file using libxls, possibly resulting in execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the process or a Denial of Service condition. Workaround : There is no known workaround at this time. |
| last seen | 2020-04-04 |
| modified | 2020-03-31 |
| plugin id | 135019 |
| published | 2020-03-31 |
| reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
| source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/135019 |
| title | GLSA-202003-64 : libxls: Multiple vulnerabilities |