CVE-2018-14618 - Integer Overflow or Wraparound

Severity

99%

Complexity

99%

Confidentiality

165%

curl before version 7.61.1 is vulnerable to a buffer overrun in the NTLM authentication code. The internal function Curl_ntlm_core_mk_nt_hash multiplies the length of the password by two (SUM) to figure out how large temporary storage area to allocate from the heap. The length value is then subsequently used to iterate over the password and generate output into the allocated storage buffer. On systems with a 32 bit size_t, the math to calculate SUM triggers an integer overflow when the password length exceeds 2GB (2^31 bytes). This integer overflow usually causes a very small buffer to actually get allocated instead of the intended very huge one, making the use of that buffer end up in a heap buffer overflow. (This bug is almost identical to CVE-2017-8816.)

curl before version 7.61.1 is vulnerable to a buffer overrun in the NTLM authentication code. The internal function Curl_ntlm_core_mk_nt_hash multiplies the length of the password by two (SUM) to figure out how large temporary storage area to allocate from the heap. The length value is then subsequently used to iterate over the password and generate output into the allocated storage buffer. On systems with a 32 bit size_t, the math to calculate SUM triggers an integer overflow when the password length exceeds 2GB (2^31 bytes). This integer overflow usually causes a very small buffer to actually get allocated instead of the intended very huge one, making the use of that buffer end up in a heap buffer overflow. (This bug is almost identical to CVE-2017-8816.)

CVSS 3.0 Base Score 9.8. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

CVSS 2.0 Base Score 9.9. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C).

Demo Examples

Integer Overflow or Wraparound

CWE-190

The following image processing code allocates a table for images.


               
...

This code intends to allocate a table of size num_imgs, however as num_imgs grows large, the calculation determining the size of the list will eventually overflow (CWE-190). This will result in a very small list to be allocated instead. If the subsequent code operates on the list as if it were num_imgs long, it may result in many types of out-of-bounds problems (CWE-119).

Integer Overflow or Wraparound

CWE-190

The following code excerpt from OpenSSH 3.3 demonstrates a classic case of integer overflow:


               
}
for (i = 0; i < nresp; i++) response[i] = packet_get_string(NULL);

If nresp has the value 1073741824 and sizeof(char*) has its typical value of 4, then the result of the operation nresp*sizeof(char*) overflows, and the argument to xmalloc() will be 0. Most malloc() implementations will happily allocate a 0-byte buffer, causing the subsequent loop iterations to overflow the heap buffer response.

Integer Overflow or Wraparound

CWE-190

Integer overflows can be complicated and difficult to detect. The following example is an attempt to show how an integer overflow may lead to undefined looping behavior:


               
}
bytesRec += getFromInput(buf+bytesRec);

In the above case, it is entirely possible that bytesRec may overflow, continuously creating a lower number than MAXGET and also overwriting the first MAXGET-1 bytes of buf.

Integer Overflow or Wraparound

CWE-190

In this example the method determineFirstQuarterRevenue is used to determine the first quarter revenue for an accounting/business application. The method retrieves the monthly sales totals for the first three months of the year, calculates the first quarter sales totals from the monthly sales totals, calculates the first quarter revenue based on the first quarter sales, and finally saves the first quarter revenue results to the database.


               
}
return 0;// Variable for sales revenue for the quarter// Calculate quarterly total// Calculate the total revenue for the quarter

However, in this example the primitive type short int is used for both the monthly and the quarterly sales variables. In C the short int primitive type has a maximum value of 32768. This creates a potential integer overflow if the value for the three monthly sales adds up to more than the maximum value for the short int primitive type. An integer overflow can lead to data corruption, unexpected behavior, infinite loops and system crashes. To correct the situation the appropriate primitive type should be used, as in the example below, and/or provide some validation mechanism to ensure that the maximum value for the primitive type is not exceeded.


               
}
...// Calculate quarterly total// Calculate the total revenue for the quarter

Note that an integer overflow could also occur if the quarterSold variable has a primitive type long but the method calculateRevenueForQuarter has a parameter of type short.

Overview

First reported 6 years ago

2018-09-05 19:29:00

Last updated 5 years ago

2019-04-22 17:48:00

Affected Software

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 12.04 ESM (Extended Security Maintenance)

12.04

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS (Long-Term Support)

14.04

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS (Long-Term Support)

16.04

Canonical Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS Edition

18.04

Debian Linux 9.0

9.0

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0

6.0

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.0 (7)

7.0

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4

7.4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5

7.5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6

7.6

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