====================================================================== Secunia Research 22/10/2008 - GNU Enscript "setfilename" Special Escape Buffer Overflow - ====================================================================== 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 ====================================================================== 1) Affected Software * GNU Enscript 1.6.1 * GNU Enscript 1.6.4 (beta) NOTE: Other versions may also be affected. ====================================================================== 2) Severity Rating: Moderately Critical Impact: System compromise Where: Remote ====================================================================== 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/ ====================================================================== 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. ====================================================================== 5) Solution Do not convert untrusted files. Various Linux vendors will issue patched versions soon. ====================================================================== 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. ====================================================================== 7) Credits Discovered by Ulf Harnhammar, Secunia Research. ====================================================================== 8) References The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned CVE-2008-3863 for the vulnerability. ====================================================================== 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 database as a service to the security community and private individuals, who are interested in or concerned about IT-security. http://secunia.com/advisories/ Secunia believes that it is important to support the community and to do active vulnerability research in order to aid improving the security and reliability of software in general: http://secunia.com/secunia_research/ Secunia regularly hires new skilled team members. Check the URL below to see currently vacant positions: http://secunia.com/corporate/jobs/ Secunia offers a FREE mailing list called Secunia Security Advisories: http://secunia.com/advisories/mailing_lists/ ====================================================================== 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/ ======================================================================