[32863] in bugtraq
Re: Buffer overflow/privilege escalation in MacOS X
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave G.)
Tue Dec 16 12:30:55 2003
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Cc: bugtraq@securityfocus.com
From: "Dave G." <daveg@atstake.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 17:48:21 -0500
To: Max <rusmir@tula.net>
> Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 11:54:02 -0800
> From: Max <rusmir@tula.net>
> To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com
> Subject: Buffer overflow/privilege escalation in MacOS X
>
> Hi,
>
> It appears that parts of MacOSX that didn't come from BSD are
> not very well written and have significant security issues.
>
> An example is a /System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util
> utility. It is suid root and it is vulnerable to a classic buffer
> overflow due to the lack of input validation.
>
Indeed. However, due to several mitigating factors, this issue doe not
appear to be exploitable (at least not with any of the techniques I am
aware of). The overflow occurs in main() and there is an unavoidable
exit() at the end of the function. So while you can overwrite the
return stack frame, the process will never use your new value.
Cheers,
Dave G.
