NetBSD up to 5.1.4/5.2.2/6.0.5/6.1.4 System Call modctl denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as problematic has been reported in NetBSD up to 5.1.4/5.2.2/6.0.5/6.1.4. Impacted is the function modctl of the component System Call Handler. This manipulation causes denial of service. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in NetBSD up to 5.1.4/5.2.2/6.0.5/6.1.4 (Operating System). It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function modctl of the component System Call Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. As an impact it is known to affect availability.

The weakness was published 08/27/2014 by Maxime Villard as NetBSD Security Advisory 2014-011 as confirmed advisory (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at ftp.netbsd.org. The exploitation appears to be easy. Attacking locally is a requirement. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The advisory points out:

The modctl system call takes as second argument a buffer which is represented as a structure when loading a kernel module. This structure indicates special information on how to load a module, including a string pointer and the length of the string pointed to. A kernel buffer of the same size is allocated, but no check was performed to ensure the size is neither too low nor too high, thus allowing a local user to crash the system.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published immediately after the disclosure of the vulnerability. The advisory contains the following remark:

For all NetBSD versions, you need to obtain fixed kernel sources, rebuild and install the new kernel, and reboot the system.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (95642) and SecurityFocus (BID 69475†). Additional details are provided at mail-index.netbsd.org. Similar entries are available at VDB-67437 and VDB-67436. Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Name

• NetBSD

Version

• 5.1.0
• 5.1.1
• 5.1.2
• 5.1.3
• 5.1.4
• 5.2.0
• 5.2.1
• 5.2.2
• 6.0.0
• 6.0.1
• 6.0.2
• 6.0.3
• 6.0.4
• 6.0.5
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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