CVE-2008-2932 in adminutil
Summary
by MITRE
Heap-based buffer overflow in Red Hat adminutil 1.1.6 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via % (percent) encoded HTTP input to unspecified CGI scripts in Fedora Directory Server. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incorrect fix for CVE-2008-2929.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/16/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2008-2932 represents a critical heap-based buffer overflow affecting Red Hat adminutil version 1.1.6 within the Fedora Directory Server environment. This flaw specifically manifests when processing percent-encoded HTTP input through unspecified CGI scripts, creating a significant security risk that can be exploited remotely by attackers. The vulnerability's classification as a heap-based buffer overflow indicates that malicious input causes the program to write beyond the boundaries of allocated heap memory, potentially leading to memory corruption and unpredictable behavior.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from improper input validation within the CGI script processing pipeline of the Fedora Directory Server. When HTTP requests containing percent-encoded characters are processed, the system fails to properly bounds-check the input data before copying it into fixed-size buffers allocated on the heap. This oversight allows attackers to craft malicious payloads that exceed buffer boundaries, triggering the heap overflow condition. The vulnerability's relationship to CVE-2008-2929 demonstrates a concerning pattern where security fixes may inadvertently introduce new weaknesses, suggesting that the original fix for the related vulnerability was incomplete or improperly implemented.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple denial of service conditions to potentially enabling remote code execution. While the primary effect described is daemon crash leading to service disruption, the heap overflow nature suggests that attackers could potentially manipulate memory contents to redirect program execution flow. This capability could allow malicious actors to execute arbitrary code on the affected system with the privileges of the running daemon process. The vulnerability affects the core directory services functionality, potentially compromising the integrity and availability of directory information that many applications depend upon for authentication and authorization.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate patching of the affected Red Hat adminutil component to the latest secure version that properly addresses the buffer overflow condition. Organizations should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of vulnerable CGI scripts to untrusted networks. The implementation of input validation measures at the application level can help prevent malformed percent-encoded sequences from reaching the vulnerable code paths. Security monitoring should focus on detecting unusual HTTP request patterns and potential exploitation attempts targeting directory server components. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-121 heap-based buffer overflow patterns and represents a potential technique for privilege escalation attacks within the ATT&CK framework's execution and persistence domains, particularly concerning directory service exploitation and system compromise.