[UNIX] Buffer Overflow in Whois Client

From: SecuriTeam (support_at_securiteam.com)
Date: 08/24/03

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Date: 24 Aug 2003 16:35:19 +0200

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      Buffer Overflow in Whois Client
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    SUMMARY

    Whois client is "a client to query the Whois servers, collecting data
    about internet domains". Zone-h Security Team has discovered a buffer
    overflow vulnerability in Whois client (all versions).

    DETAILS

    By default, the Whois client is not setuid, therefore the bug is not
    exploitable locally. However, there are many CGI scripts, written in
    PHP/Perl, that use the Whois client. Therefore, it is possible to gain
    remote access to the server with web server privileges.
     
    To test the buffer overflow:
    astharot@astharot astharot $ whois -g `perl -e "print 'a'x2000"`
     
    Solution:
    There is a simple workaround. In the file whois.c find the line
    sprintf(p--, "-%c %s ", ch, optarg);
     
    And replace it with
    snprintf(p--, sizeof(fstring), "-%c %s ", ch, optarg);

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

    The information has been provided by <mailto:gentiliem@tiscali.it>
    Ox6D6362@zone-h.org.

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