CVE-2021-1471 - Improper Null Termination

Severity

55%

Complexity

22%

Confidentiality

56%

Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Jabber for Windows, Cisco Jabber for MacOS, and Cisco Jabber for mobile platforms could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary programs on the underlying operating system with elevated privileges, access sensitive information, intercept protected network traffic, or cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.

CVSS 3.1 Base Score 5.6. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: high. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L).

CVSS 2.0 Base Score 6.8. CVSS Attack Vector: network. CVSS Attack Complexity: medium. CVSS Vector: (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P).

Demo Examples

Improper Null Termination

CWE-170

The following code reads from cfgfile and copies the input into inputbuf using strcpy(). The code mistakenly assumes that inputbuf will always contain a NULL terminator.


               
...

The code above will behave correctly if the data read from cfgfile is null terminated on disk as expected. But if an attacker is able to modify this input so that it does not contain the expected NULL character, the call to strcpy() will continue copying from memory until it encounters an arbitrary NULL character. This will likely overflow the destination buffer and, if the attacker can control the contents of memory immediately following inputbuf, can leave the application susceptible to a buffer overflow attack.

Improper Null Termination

CWE-170

In the following code, readlink() expands the name of a symbolic link stored in pathname and puts the absolute path into buf. The length of the resulting value is then calculated using strlen().


               
...

The code above will not always behave correctly as readlink() does not append a NULL byte to buf. Readlink() will stop copying characters once the maximum size of buf has been reached to avoid overflowing the buffer, this will leave the value buf not NULL terminated. In this situation, strlen() will continue traversing memory until it encounters an arbitrary NULL character further on down the stack, resulting in a length value that is much larger than the size of string. Readlink() does return the number of bytes copied, but when this return value is the same as stated buf size (in this case MAXPATH), it is impossible to know whether the pathname is precisely that many bytes long, or whether readlink() has truncated the name to avoid overrunning the buffer. In testing, vulnerabilities like this one might not be caught because the unused contents of buf and the memory immediately following it may be NULL, thereby causing strlen() to appear as if it is behaving correctly.

Improper Null Termination

CWE-170

While the following example is not exploitable, it provides a good example of how nulls can be omitted or misplaced, even when "safe" functions are used:


               
}
return (0);

The above code gives the following output: "The last character in shortString is: n (6e)". So, the shortString array does not end in a NULL character, even though the "safe" string function strncpy() was used. The reason is that strncpy() does not impliciitly add a NULL character at the end of the string when the source is equal in length or longer than the provided size.

Demo Examples

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

This code checks the certificate of a connected peer.


               
foo=SSL_get_verify_result(ssl);
// certificate looks good, host can be trusted

In this case, because the certificate is self-signed, there was no external authority that could prove the identity of the host. The program could be communicating with a different system that is spoofing the host, e.g. by poisoning the DNS cache or using a MITM attack to modify the traffic from server to client.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code obtains a certificate and verifies it.


               
}
// do secret things

Even though the "verify" step returns X509_V_OK, this step does not include checking the Common Name against the name of the host. That is, there is no guarantee that the certificate is for the desired host. The SSL connection could have been established with a malicious host that provided a valid certificate.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code ensures that there is a certificate and allows the use of expired certificates.


               
//do stuff

If the call to SSL_get_verify_result() returns X509_V_ERR_CERT_HAS_EXPIRED, this means that the certificate has expired. As time goes on, there is an increasing chance for attackers to compromise the certificate.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code ensures that there is a certificate before continuing execution.


               
// got a certificate, do secret things

Because this code does not use SSL_get_verify_results() to check the certificate, it could accept certificates that have been revoked (X509_V_ERR_CERT_REVOKED). The software could be communicating with a malicious host.

Improper Certificate Validation

CWE-295

The following OpenSSL code ensures that the host has a certificate.


               
}
// got certificate, host can be trusted//foo=SSL_get_verify_result(ssl);//if (X509_V_OK==foo) ...

Note that the code does not call SSL_get_verify_result(ssl), which effectively disables the validation step that checks the certificate.

Overview

Type

Cisco Jabber for

First reported 3 years ago

2021-03-24 20:15:00

Last updated 3 years ago

2021-03-29 17:37:00

Affected Software

Cisco Jabber for macOS

macos

Cisco Jabber for Android

android

Cisco Jabber for iPhone OS

iphone_os

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