Message-ID: <20030816230519.GA31110@mail.bitnux.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 01:05:19 +0200
From: Joel Eriksson <je@...nux.com>
To: bugtraq@...urityfocus.com
Subject: Dropbear SSH Server <= 0.34

==========================================================================
0xbadc0ded Advisory #02 - 2003/08/17 - Dropbear SSH Server <= 0.34 
==========================================================================

Reference      http://0xbadc0ded.org/advisories/0302.txt
PGP-key        http://0xbadc0ded.org/advisories/pubkey.asc

Application    Dropbear SSH Server <= 0.34
Discovered By  Joel Eriksson <je@...nux.com>
Researched By  Joel Eriksson <je@...nux.com>

Overview

  Dropbear SSH Server is a small Secure Shell server suitable for
  embedded environments. It implements various features of the SSH 2
  protocol, including X11 and Authentication agent forwarding.

Problem

  A remotely exploitable format string vulnerability exists in the default
  configuration of the Dropbear SSH Server up until version 0.35, which was
  released shortly after Matt Johnston, the Dropbear developer, was notified
  of the problem. Thanks for a quick response Matt!

  The bug can be triggered by supplying a username with format specifiers
  and make a login attempt. Since the user does not exist, the login attempt
  will fail and the following code in auth.c will be executed:

    dropbear_log(LOG_WARNING,
                    "login attempt for nonexistant user '%s' from %s",
                    username, ses.addrstring);

  To format the log message, vsnprintf() is used, the resulting buffer will
  be passed to syslog() (unless dropbear is run in foreground or compiled
  with DISABLE_SYSLOG defined). The formatted buffer is passed as a format
  string to syslog() so if the username contains any format string specifiers,
  they will be parsed. This can be used to overwrite arbitrary memory
  addresses (such as function pointers) with userdefined data (such as
  the address to shellcode supplied by the attacker).

Exploit
 
  Exploiting this bug was not entirely straightforward, but not far from either.
  The total time from downloading and starting to audit the Dropbear source until
  having developed a working exploit was just a few hours. Instead of just
  presenting an exploit, I will describe the essential steps of the process
  in detail here and make the exploit available from the 0xbadc0ded.org webpage
  at a later time.

  I will also take the opportunity to mention that among the services that
  Bitnux offer are code review, exploit development and technical training
  in auditing and exploit development techniques. :-)

  First, let's see if we can find the offset to our format string by using
  %<N>$08X to log four bytes at offset N.
  
    [root@...o /home/je/dropbear-0.34]# ./dropbear -p 2222
    [root@...o /home/je/dropbear-0.34]# ssh -p 2222 'AAAA.%24$08X'@...alhost
    AAAA%24$08X@...alhost's password: 
    ^C
    [root@...o /home/je/dropbear-0.34]# tail -2 /var/log/auth.log 
    Aug 16 20:04:43 vudo dropbear[14497]: login attempt for nonexistant user 'AAAA.41414141' from 127.0.0.1
    Aug 16 20:04:48 vudo dropbear[14497]: exited before userauth: error reading
    [root@...o /home/je/dropbear-0.34]# 

  Of course, a remote attacker would have to guess the offset (which in
  this case is 24), but this is not much of a problem. It may vary depending
  on if gcc-2.x or gcc-3.x is used for instance, since gcc-3.x adds a little
  padding to buffers (supposedly to make 1-byte-overflows harmless), but the
  variation won't be big.

  The username is limited to 25 characters, which is a little too few for
  traditional format string techniques where an entire 4-bytes pointer is
  overwritten, using two or four overlapping writes (with %hn or %hhn
  respectively). We also need to find a place for our shellcode, since
  there obviously will not be enough place left in the username.

  By examining recv_msg_userauth_request() in auth.c we can see that three
  strings are received: The username, the servicename and the methodname.
  We are already using the username for our format string (and it is limited
  to 25 bytes, as mentioned), the servicename must be "ssh-connection" or
  the connection will fail before the vulnerable code is executed, but the
  methodname may be anything except "none" which is explicitly not allowed.

  We can put as much as a little more than 30,000 characters in the
  methodname-string. To do this, we have to modify an SSH-client of course,
  or implement the SSH-protocol ourselves. I choosed to modify the SSH
  client from OpenSSH.

  I have already mentioned that there is not enough space for a format
  string that overwrites an entire 4-bytes pointer, but we have more than
  enough space to overwrite two bytes with an arbitrary value. By
  overwriting the two upper bytes of the GOT-entry of a function that
  is used after syslog() has been called, we have a very good chance
  being able to point it into the methodstring with our shellcode.

  Enough theory, let's see how it works out in practice. First I modified
  OpenSSH to let me specify the method-string in an environment variable:

    [je@...o ~/openssh-3.6.1p2]$ SSH_METHOD=`perl -e 'print "A"x30000'` ./ssh -p 2222 whatever@...alhost

  Then I looked up the address of a suitable GOT-entry and attached with gdb
  to the server-process:

    [root@...o /home/je/dropbear-0.34]# objdump -R dropbear | awk '$3 == "write"'
    08067590 R_386_JUMP_SLOT   write
    [root@...o /home/je/dropbear-0.34]# ps auxw | grep dropbear | tail -1
    root     14685  5.8  0.6  1912  840 pts/7    S    21:06   0:00 ./dropbear -p 2222
    [root@...o /home/je/dropbear-0.34]# gdb dropbear 14685
    [snip]
    (gdb) x/x 0x8067590
    0x8067590 <__JCR_LIST__+64>:    0x4012e6c0
    (gdb) x/x 0x807e6c0
    0x807e6c0:      0x41414141

  As you can see, write()'s GOT-entry has the value 0x4012e6c0, and
  0x0807e6c0 points into the method-string. Thus, to exploit this bug
  we could put shellcode at the end of methodname and use the format
  string vulnerability to write 0x0807 to 0x08067590+2. 

  This is a sample run of the exploit I developed for the vulnerability:

    [je@...o ~/openssh-3.6.1p2]$ ./dropdead               
    Linux/x86 Exploit for Dropbear SSH Server <= 0.34
    By Joel Eriksson <je@...adc0ded.org>
    Usage: ./dropdead ADDR [PORT] [HIADDR] [FPADDR]
    [je@...o ~/openssh-3.6.1p2]$ ./dropdead
    id
    uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
    exit
    [je@...o ~/openssh-3.6.1p2]$

Fix

  Upgrade to Dropbear version 0.35, or edit util.c and change:

    syslog(priority, printbuf);

  to:

    syslog(priority, "%s", printbuf);

Disclosure Timeline

  2003/08/16 Notified Matt Johnston - The Dropbear developer
  2003/08/16 Received response from Matt Johnston
  2003/08/17 Public release

==========================================================================
The 0xbadc0ded.org team is hosted and sponsored by Bitnux: www.bitnux.com
==========================================================================

Bitnux is a newly founded company located in Sweden focused on security
research and system development. We offer services such as:

  - Code Reviews
  - Exploit Development
  - Reverse Engineering of Code
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