Format String Vulnerability
ssldump is a traffic analyzer for monitoring network traffic in real time. It is written and maintained by Eric Rescorla. A problem exists which could allow the arbitrary execution of code. The problem exists in the ssldump handling of format strings. ssldump requires elevated privileges to listen to traffic crossing the network interface. While monitoring traffic, the encounter of format strings in a URL will cause the program to segmentation fault. Potentially, this could lead to the overwriting of stack variables and arbitrary execution of code with administrative access, if exploited by a malicious user. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by running SSLDUMP, opening up Netscape Navigator, and typing in the string "fixme:%s%s%s%s%s%s" into the browser. This will cause ssldump to gather the traffic and then segmentation fault.
