GNU Enscript "setfilename" Special Escape Buffer Overflow

Advisory Content :

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Secunia Research 22/10/2008

- GNU Enscript "setfilename" Special Escape Buffer Overflow -

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Table of Contents

Affected Software....................................................1
Severity.............................................................2
Vendor's Description of Software.....................................3
Description of Vulnerability.........................................4
Solution.............................................................5
Time Table...........................................................6
Credits..............................................................7
References...........................................................8
About Secunia........................................................9
Verification........................................................10

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1) Affected Software

* GNU Enscript 1.6.1
* GNU Enscript 1.6.4 (beta)

NOTE: Other versions may also be affected.

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2) Severity

Rating: Moderately Critical
Impact: System compromise
Where: Remote

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3) Vendor's Description of Software

"GNU Enscript is a free replacement for the Adobe's enscript program.
Enscript converts ASCII files to PostScript and spools generated
PostScript output to the specified printer or leaves it to file.
Enscript can be easily extended to handle different output media and
it has many options that can be used to customize printouts."

Product Link:
http://www.codento.com/people/mtr/genscript/

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4) Description of Vulnerability

Secunia Research has discovered a vulnerability in GNU Enscript, which
can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a vulnerable system.

The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error within the
"read_special_escape()" function in src/psgen.c. This can be exploited
to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by tricking the user into
converting a malicious file.

Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code, but
requires that special escapes processing is enabled with the "-e"
option.

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5) Solution

Do not convert untrusted files.

Various Linux vendors will issue patched versions soon.

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6) Time Table

08/10/2008 - vendor-sec contacted.
08/10/2008 - vendor-sec replied.
13/10/2008 - Red Hat asks for additional information.
14/10/2008 - Reply sent to Red Hat.
22/10/2008 - Public disclosure.

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7) Credits

Discovered by Ulf Harnhammar, Secunia Research.

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8) References

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned
CVE-2008-3863 for the vulnerability.

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9) About Secunia

Secunia offers vulnerability management solutions to corporate
customers with verified and reliable vulnerability intelligence
relevant to their specific system configuration:

http://secunia.com/advisories/business_solutions/

Secunia also provides a publicly accessible and comprehensive advisory
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security and reliability of software in general:

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Secunia offers a FREE mailing list called Secunia Security Advisories:

http://secunia.com/advisories/mailing_lists/

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10) Verification

Please verify this advisory by visiting the Secunia website:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/2008-41/

Complete list of vulnerability reports published by Secunia Research:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/

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GNU Enscript "setfilename" Special Escape Buffer Overflow