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CERT Advisory CA-97.14 Vulnerability in metamail



   Original issue date: May 21, 1997

   Last revised: October 25, 1999

   Added vendor information for Data General.

   

   A complete revision history is at the end of this file.

   

   The CERT Coordination Center has received reports of a vulnerability

   in metamail, a program that implements MIME. By exploiting the

   vulnerability, a sender of a MIME-encoded electronic mail message can

   cause the receiver of the message to execute an arbitrary command if

   the receiver processes the message using the metamail package. If the

   attacker has an account on the target user's local system or if the

   target user's system supports AFS or another distributed filesystem,

   then the attacker can arrange for the arbitrary command to be one the

   attacker created. This affects versions of metamail through 2.7 (the

   current version).

   

   The CERT/CC team recommends installing a vendor patch, if one is

   available, patching metamail yourself, or disabling metamail (see

   Section III).

   

   We will update this advisory as we receive additional information.

   Please check our advisory files regularly for updates that relate to

   your site.

     _________________________________________________________________

   

I. Description



   Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is a standard format for

   extended Internet electronic mail. The MIME format permits email to

   include enhanced text, graphics, and audio in a standardized and

   interoperable manner. MIME is described in RFCs 2045 through 2049.

   

   metamail is a package that implements MIME (note: metamail can be

   obtained from http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/unix/mail/metamail/mm2.7.tar.Z).

   Using a configurable "mailcap" file, metamail determines how to treat

   blocks of electronic mail text based on the content as described by

   email headers. Some popular packages for handling electronic mail have

   hooks that allow metamail to be called automatically while a message

   is being processed.

   

   A condition exists in metamail in which there is insufficient variable

   checking in some support scripts. By carefully crafting appropriate

   message headers, a sender can cause the receiver of the message to

   execute an arbitrary command if the receiver processes the message

   using the metamail package.

   

II. Impact



   A sender of a MIME encoded mail message can cause the receiver to

   execute an arbitrary command. If the attacker has an account on the

   target user's local system or if the target user's system supports AFS

   or another distributed filesystem, then the attacker can arrange for

   the arbitrary command to be one the attacker created.

   

III. Solution



   If your vendor supplies metamail with its distribution, then install a

   patch from your vendor (Solution A). If your vendor does not

   distribute metamail with their products or does not have a patch

   available, use the workaround in Solution B. An alternative for those

   with sufficient expertise is to patch the metamail scripts as

   described in Solution C.

   

A. Install a patch from your vendor, if appropriate



   The vendors we have heard from so far are listed below, with details

   in Appendix A. We will update the appendix as we receive more

   information.

   

   Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI)

   Cray Research - A Silicon Graphics Company

   Digital Equipment Corporation

   FreeBSD, Inc.

   Hewlett-Packard Company

   IBM Corporation

   Linux

   NEC Corporation

   Silicon Graphics Inc.

   Solbourne

   Sun Microsystems, Inc.

   

B. Disable metamail scripts



   To disable the metamail scripts, remove the execute permissions from

   the scripts that are located in the mm2.7/src/bin directory of

   metamail v2.7 (the latest version of metamail). Remember that,

   depending on your installation of metamail, the scripts may be located

   in other directories in your operating system.

   

C. Patch metamail yourself



   Sites that need to use metamail and have the expertise may wish to

   patch the scripts that are part of the metamail distribution. Note

   that the guidance below is supplied as is, and you need to be sure

   that you understand the impact (if any) that your modifications will

   have on metamail functionality.

   

   The scripts referred to in the following material are all located in

   the mm2.7/src/bin directory of metamail v2.7 (the latest version of

   metamail). They may be located in other directories in your operating

   system.

   

1. Ensure that parameters supplied to the scripts do not contain anywhite

space.



   Using showexternal as an example, add the following code before any

   argument processing:

# Check argument integrity. Don't trust mail headers

switch ("$1$2$3$4$5$6$7")

case "*[\t ]*":

 echo "Illegal white space in arguments\!"

 echo "Command was:"

 echo "'$0' '$1' '$2' '$3' '$4' '$5' '$6' '$7'"

 exit 2

endsw



   Add this code to the showexternal script at the very least, prior to

   any argument processing within that script. We encourage you to add

   this code to other scripts in mm2.7/src/bin directory to ensure that

   arguments in those scripts also exclude white space. You may need to

   adapt the code for your particular system.

   

   Note that this patch may affect functionality in cases (such as

   filenames) where parameters may have legitimately included white

   space.

   

   This step addresses the problem referred to in this advisory. As part

   of a more generally secure programming practice, please also consider

   the following modifications.

   

2. Ensure that script parameter references are quoted. For instance, in show

external, change this line:



   set name=$3

   

   to

   

   set name="$3"

   

   This should be done for every reference to a command line argument in

   each of the scripts.

   

   Note that csh has a :q operator which is also intended for this

   purpose. If you prefer, you can use this operator in each case instead

   of quoting.

   

3. Any variables in these scripts that take their value (either directlyor

indirectly) from a script parameter should also be quoted where necessary.



   For instance, in the showexternal script, change the line:

   get $name $NEWNAME

       

   to

   get "$name" "$NEWNAME"

       

   Also change the following line:

   if ($NEWNAME != $name) then

       

   to

   if ("$NEWNAME" != "$name") then

       

   Similarly, there will be other instances where $name specifically, and

   other variables in general, should be quoted.

   

   The reason is that these variables take their value from the script

   parameters (for example, $name takes its value from $3, and $NEWNAME

   may take its value from $name).

   

   As before, the :q operator can be used in each case.

   

   Note that in doing this step, some care will be required.

   

4. Make sure that users have an appropriate umask set for directory and file

creation.



   Although the value is subject to local restrictions, you may want to

   use a default value of 027 (depending upon the local environment).

   

5. Make sure that users have an appropriate value set for the environment

variable METAMAIL_TMPDIR.



   This environment variable tells metamail where to create the temporary

   files it needs while processing. If the variable is not set in the

   user's environment, the default value is /tmp. Since /tmp is

   accessible by all users, it is possible that use of this value will

   allow exploitation of race conditions. We recommend setting the value

   to a protected directory belonging to the user.

   

6. To ensure that the METAMAIL_TMPDIR is used properly and in a secure

manner, consider modifications along the following lines, using the

showexternal scripts as an example.



   These modifications should reflect and reinforce the suggestions

   outlined in the previous two items, namely that the temporary

   directory metamail uses should be protected and accessible only by the

   user.

   

   Note that the following code fragments are for example only, and sites

   should adapt this code according to local requirements.

   

   Change these lines:

if (! $?METAMAIL_TMPDIR) then

 set METAMAIL_TMPDIR=/tmp

endif



to



# Set a sensible value for the temporary directory, if its not

# already set. If TMPDIR is set previously, then we will

# assume it is adequately protected.

if (! $?METAMAIL_TMPDIR) then

 if ($?TMPDIR) then

 set METAMAIL_TMPDIR="$TMPDIR"

 else

 set METAMAIL_TMPDIR=~/metamail_tmp

 endif

endif



# Set a sensible umask value

umask 077



# Make sure that the temporary directory is available

if (! -d "$METAMAIL_TMPDIR") then



 if (! -e "$METAMAIL_TMPDIR") then

 mkdir "$METAMAIL_TMPDIR"

 else

 echo "$METAMAIL_TMPDIR exists, but is not a directory"

 exit 2

 endif



 if ( $status != 0 || ! -d "$METAMAIL_TMPDIR" ) then

 echo "Error creating $METAMAIL_TMPDIR"

 exit 2

 endif



endif

     _________________________________________________________________

   

Appendix A - Vendor Information



   Below is a list of the vendors who have provided information for this

   advisory. We will update this appendix as we receive additional

   information. If you do not see your vendor's name, please contact the

   vendor directly or use the workaround in Section III.

   

Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI)



   BSDI ships metamail and is vulnerable to the attack. Patches are in

   progress.

   

Cray Research - A Silicon Graphics Company



   Cray Research does not ship metamail as part of either Unicos or

   Unicos/mk.

   

Data General



   Our metamail scripts are Bourne shell scripts from the SVR4.2MP

   distribution and do not have the parameter quoting problem.

   

Digital Equipment Corporation



   Digital Equipment Corporation

   Software Security Response Team

   May 19,1997

   Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation 1997. All rights reserved.

   

   This reported problem is not present for Digital's ULTRIX or Digital

   UNIX Operating Systems Software.

   - DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION

       

FreeBSD, Inc.



   If you installed the metamail package or port then you are vulnerable.

   All released versions of FreeBSD including 2.2.2R have this flaw in

   them. The port was corrected as of May 21, 1997. Either update your

   system from a more recent port, or apply the patches contained in this

   advisory to those files affected.

   

Hewlett-Packard Company



   HP-UX is vulnerable; patches are in progress.

   

IBM Corporation



   Not vulnerable, metamail is not shipped as part of AIX.

   

   IBM and AIX are registered trademarks of International Business

   Machines Corporation.

   

Linux



   Debian:

   

   Debian uses its own bourne shell based metamail scripts not the

   standard ones.

   

   Red Hat: i386

   rpm -Uvh

   http://ftp.redhat.com/updates/4.2/i386/metamail-2.7-7.1.i386.rpm

   

   Alpha

   rpm -Uvh

   http://ftp.redhat.com/updates/4.2/alpha/metamail-2.7-7.1.alpha.rpm

   

NEC Corporation



   UX/4800 Not vulnerable for all versions.

   EWS-UX/V(Rel4.2MP) Not vulnerable for all versions.

   EWS-UX/V(Rel4.2) Not vulnerable for all versions.

   UP-UX/V(Rel4.2MP) Not vulnerable for all versions.

   EWS-UX/V(Rel4.0) Not vulnerable for all versions.

   UP-UX/V Not vulnerable for all versions.

   

Silicon Graphics Inc.



   At this time, Silicon Graphics does not have any public information

   for the metamail issue. Silicon Graphics has communicated with CERT

   and other external security parties and is actively investigating this

   issue. When more Silicon Graphics information (including any possible

   patches) is available for release, that information will be released

   via the SGI security mailing list, wiretap.

   

   For subscribing to the wiretap mailing list and other SGI security

   related information, please refer to the Silicon Graphics Security

   Headquarters website located at:

   

   http://www.sgi.com/Support/Secur/security.html

   

Solbourne



   We do not ship the utility.

   We do not anticipate providing a patch, since we do not ship the

   utility.

   

Sun Microsystems, Inc.



   Sun does not ship metamail with any of our platforms.

   Sun has no plans to produce patches.

     _________________________________________________________________

   

   The CERT Coordination Center staff thanks Olaf Kirch for contributing

   code to the solution section and thanks BSDI and FreeBSD for their

   input on the solution.

     _________________________________________________________________

   ______________________________________________________________________

   

   This document is available from:

   http://www.preview.cert.org/advisories/CA-97.14.metamail.html

   ______________________________________________________________________

   

CERT/CC Contact Information



   Email: cert@cert.org

          Phone: +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)

          Fax: +1 412-268-6989

          Postal address:

          CERT Coordination Center

          Software Engineering Institute

          Carnegie Mellon University

          Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890

          U.S.A.

          

   CERT personnel answer the hotline 08:00-20:00 EST(GMT-5) / EDT(GMT-4)

   Monday through Friday; they are on call for emergencies during other

   hours, on U.S. holidays, and on weekends.

   

Using encryption



   We strongly urge you to encrypt sensitive information sent by email.

   Our public PGP key is available from

   

   http://www.cert.org/CERT_PGP.key

       

   If you prefer to use DES, please call the CERT hotline for more

   information.

   

Getting security information



   CERT publications and other security information are available from

   our web site

   

   http://www.cert.org/

       

   To be added to our mailing list for advisories and bulletins, send

   email to cert-advisory-request@cert.org and include SUBSCRIBE

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   Copyright 1999 Carnegie Mellon University.

   Conditions for use, disclaimers, and sponsorship information can be

   found in

   

   http://www.cert.org/legal_stuff.html

       

   * "CERT" and "CERT Coordination Center" are registered in the U.S.

   Patent and Trademark Office.

   ______________________________________________________________________

   

   NO WARRANTY

   Any material furnished by Carnegie Mellon University and the Software

   Engineering Institute is furnished on an "as is" basis. Carnegie

   Mellon University makes no warranties of any kind, either expressed or

   implied as to any matter including, but not limited to, warranty of

   fitness for a particular purpose or merchantability, exclusivity or

   results obtained from use of the material. Carnegie Mellon University

   does not make any warranty of any kind with respect to freedom from

   patent, trademark, or copyright infringement.

     _________________________________________________________________

   

   Revision History

Oct 25, 1999 Added vendor information for Data General.

Oct 29, 1997 Updated vendor information for Red Hat.

Sep 30, 1997 Updated copyright statement

May 23, 1997 Appendix A, BSDI - added information.

May 21, 1997 Appendix A, FreeBSD - changed release date of the patch



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