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author | Petteri Aimonen <jpa@git.mail.kapsi.fi> | 2014-09-08 17:34:16 +0300 |
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committer | Petteri Aimonen <jpa@git.mail.kapsi.fi> | 2014-09-11 19:22:57 +0300 |
commit | d2099cc8f1adb33d427a44a5e32ed27b647c7168 (patch) | |
tree | 8da68294b7f52919a9673ac503f23469cf336170 /tests/no_messages | |
parent | d0466bdf439a190f4a17c502d8aeb40ef823b53e (diff) |
Protect against size_t overflows in pb_dec_bytes/pb_dec_string.
Possible consequences of bug:
1) Denial of service by causing a crash
Possible when all of the following apply:
- Untrusted data is passed to pb_decode()
- The top-level message contains a static string field as the first field.
Causes a single write of '0' byte to 1 byte before the message struct.
2) Remote code execution
Possible when all of the following apply:
- 64-bit platform
- The message or a submessage contains a static/pointer string field.
- Decoding directly from a custom pb_istream_t
- bytes_left on the stream is set to larger than 4 GB
Causes a write of up to 4 GB of data past the string field.
3) Possible heap corruption or remote code execution
Possible when all of the following apply:
- less than 64-bit platform
- The message or a submessage contains a pointer-type bytes field.
Causes a write of sizeof(pb_size_t) bytes of data past a 0-byte long
malloc()ed buffer. On many malloc() implementations, this causes at
most a crash. However, remote code execution through a controlled jump
cannot be ruled out.
--
Detailed analysis follows
In the following consideration, I define "platform bitness" as equal to
number of bits in size_t datatype. Therefore most 8-bit platforms are
regarded as 16-bit for the purposes of this discussion.
1. The overflow in pb_dec_string
The overflow happens in this computation:
uint32_t size;
size_t alloc_size;
alloc_size = size + 1;
There are two ways in which the overflow can occur: In the uint32_t
addition, or in the cast to size_t. This depends on the platform
bitness.
On 32- and 64-bit platforms, the size has to be UINT32_MAX for the
overflow to occur. In that case alloc_size will be 0.
On 16-bit platforms, overflow will happen whenever size is more than
UINT16_MAX, and resulting alloc_size is attacker controlled.
For static fields, the alloc_size value is just checked against the
field data size. For pointer fields, the alloc_size value is passed to
malloc(). End result in both cases is the same, the storage is 0 or
just a few bytes in length.
On 16-bit platforms, another overflow occurs in the call to pb_read(),
when passing the original size. An attacker will want the passed value
to be larger than the alloc_size, therefore the only reasonable choice
is to have size = UINT16_MAX and alloc_size = 0. Any larger multiple
will truncate to the same values.
At this point we have read atleast the tag and the string length of the
message, i.e. atleast 3 bytes. The maximum initial value for stream
bytes_left is SIZE_MAX, thus at this point at most SIZE_MAX-3 bytes are
remaining.
On 32-bit and 16-bit platforms this means that the size passed to
pb_read() is always larger than the number of remaining bytes. This
causes pb_read() to fail immediately, before reading any bytes.
On 64-bit platforms, it is possible for the bytes_left value to be set
to a value larger than UINT32_MAX, which is the wraparound point in
size calculation. In this case pb_read() will succeed and write up to 4
GB of attacker controlled data over the RAM that comes after the string
field.
On all platforms, there is an unconditional write of a terminating null
byte. Because the size of size_t typically reflects the size of the
processor address space, a write at UINT16_MAX or UINT32_MAX bytes
after the string field actually wraps back to before the string field.
Consequently, on 32-bit and 16-bit platforms, the bug causes a single
write of '0' byte at one byte before the string field.
If the string field is in the middle of a message, this will just
corrupt other data in the message struct. Because the message contents
is attacker controlled anyway, this is a non-issue. However, if the
string field is the first field in the top-level message, it can
corrupt other data on the stack/heap before it. Typically a single '0'
write at a location not controlled by attacker is enough only for a
denial-of-service attack.
When using pointer fields and malloc(), the attacker controlled
alloc_size will cause a 0-size allocation to happen. By the same logic
as before, on 32-bit and 16-bit platforms this causes a '0' byte write
only. On 64-bit platforms, however, it will again allow up to 4 GB of
malicious data to be written over memory, if the stream length allows
the read.
2. The overflow in pb_dec_bytes
This overflow happens in the PB_BYTES_ARRAY_T_ALLOCSIZE macro:
The computation is done in size_t data type this time. This means that
an overflow is possible only when n is larger than SIZE_MAX -
offsetof(..). The offsetof value in this case is equal to
sizeof(pb_size_t) bytes.
Because the incoming size value is limited to 32 bits, no overflow can
happen here on 64-bit platforms.
The size will be passed to pb_read(). Like before, on 32-bit and 16-bit
platforms the read will always fail before writing anything.
This leaves only the write of bdest->size as exploitable. On statically
allocated fields, the size field will always be allocated, regardless
of alloc_size. In this case, no buffer overflow is possible here, but
user code could possibly use the attacker controlled size value and
read past a buffer.
If the field is allocated through malloc(), this will allow a write of
sizeof(pb_size_t) attacker controlled bytes to past a 0-byte long
buffer. In typical malloc implementations, this will either fit in
unused alignment padding area, or cause a heap corruption and a crash.
Under very exceptional situation it could allow attacker to influence
the behaviour of malloc(), possibly jumping into an attacker-controlled
location and thus leading to remote code execution.
Diffstat (limited to 'tests/no_messages')
0 files changed, 0 insertions, 0 deletions