$Revision: 1.4 $; $Date: 2007/05/30 22:04:52 $

I. BACKGROUND

GNU findutils is a set of programs which search for files on Unix-like
systems. It is maintained by the GNU Project of the Free Software
Foundation. For more information, see http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils.

II. DESCRIPTION

When GNU locate reads filenames from an old-format locate database,
they are read into a fixed-length buffer allocated on the heap.
Filenames longer than the 1026-byte buffer can cause a buffer overrun.
The overrunning data can be chosen by any person able to control the
names of filenames created on the local system. This will normally
include all local users, but in many cases also remote users (for
example in the case of FTP servers allowing uploads).

III. ANALYSIS

Findutils supports three different formats of locate database, its
native format "LOCATE02", the slocate variant of LOCATE02, and a
traditional ("old") format that locate uses on other Unix systems.

When locate reads filenames from a LOCATE02 database (the default
format), the buffer into which data is read is automatically extended
to accommodate the length of the filenames.

This automatic buffer extension does not happen for old-format
databases. Instead a 1026-byte buffer is used. When a longer
pathname appears in the locate database, the end of this buffer is
overrun. The buffer is allocated on the heap (not the stack).

If the locate database is in the default LOCATE02 format, the locate
program does perform automatic buffer extension, and the program is
not vulnerable to this problem. The software used to build the
old-format locate database is not itself vulnerable to the same
attack.

Most installations of GNU findutils do not use the old database
format, and so will not be vulnerable.

IV. DETECTION

Software:
All existing releases of findutils are affected.

Installations:
To discover the longest path name on a given system, you can use the
following command (requires GNU findutils and GNU coreutils):

find / -print0 | tr -c '\0' 'x' | tr '\0' '\n' | wc -L

V. EXAMPLE

This section includes a shell script which determines which of a list
of locate binaries is vulnerable to the problem. The shell script has
been tested only on glibc based systems having a mktemp binary.

NOTE: This script deliberately overruns the buffer in order to
determine if a binary is affected. Therefore running it on your
system may have undesirable effects. We recommend that you read the
script before running it.

#! /bin/sh
set +m
if vanilla_db="$(mktemp nicedb.XXXXXX)" ; then
if updatedb --prunepaths="" --old-format --localpaths="/tmp" \
–output="${vanilla_db}" ; then
true
else
rm -f "${vanilla_db}"
vanilla_db=""
echo "Failed to create old-format locate database; skipping the
sanity checks" >&2
fi
fi

make_overrun_db() {
# Start with a valid database
cat "${vanilla_db}"
# Make the final entry really long
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1 count=1500 2>/dev/null | tr '\000' 'x'
}

ulimit -c 0

usage() { echo "usage: $0 binary [binary…]" >&2; exit $1; }
[ $# -eq 0 ] && usage 1

bad=""
good=""
ugly=""
if dbfile="$(mktemp nasty.XXXXXX)"
then
make_overrun_db > "$dbfile"
for locate ; do
ver="$locate = $("$locate" --version | head -1)"
if [ -z "$vanilla_db" ] || "$locate" -d "$vanilla_db" "" >/dev/null ; then
"$locate" -d "$dbfile" "" >/dev/null
if [ $? -gt 128 ] ; then
bad="$bad
vulnerable: $ver"
else
good="$good
good: $ver"
fi
else
# the regular locate failed
ugly="$ugly
buggy, may or may not be vulnerable: $ver"
fi
done
rm -f "${dbfile}" "${vanilla_db}"
# good: unaffected. bad: affected (vulnerable).
# ugly: doesn't even work for a normal old-format database.
echo "$good"
echo "$bad"
echo "$ugly"
else
exit 1
fi

VI. VENDOR RESPONSE

The GNU project discovered the problem while 'locate' was being worked
on. The GNU findutils maintainer has issued a patch as part of this
announcement. The patch appears below, but the relevant change is
also included in findutils version 4.2.31, which is available by FTP
at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils/findutils-4.2.31.tar.gz.

A release of findutils-4.3.x will follow and will also include the
patch.

VII. PATCH

A version of findutils in which this problem has been addressed is
available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils/findutils-4.2.31.tar.gz.

This patch also fixes the problem and should apply to findutils-4.2.23
and later. Findutils-4.2.23 was released almost two years ago.

Index: locate/locate.c

RCS file: /cvsroot/findutils/findutils/locate/locate.c,v
retrieving revision 1.58.2.2
diff -u -p -r1.58.2.2 locate.c
— locate/locate.c 22 Apr 2007 16:57:42 -0000 1.58.2.2
+++ locate/locate.c 28 May 2007 10:18:16 -0000
@@ -124,9 +124,9 @@ extern int errno;

#include "locatedb.h"
#include <getline.h>
-#include "…/gnulib/lib/xalloc.h"
-#include "…/gnulib/lib/error.h"
-#include "…/gnulib/lib/human.h"
+#include "xalloc.h"
+#include "error.h"
+#include "human.h"
#include "dirname.h"
#include "closeout.h"
#include "nextelem.h"
@@ -468,10 +468,36 @@ visit_justprint_unquoted(struct process_
return VISIT_CONTINUE;
}

+static void
+toolong (struct process_data *procdata)
+{

• error (1, 0,

•    _("locate database %s contains a "
  

•      "filename longer than locate can handle"),
  

•    procdata->dbfile);
  

+}
+
+static void
+extend (struct process_data *procdata, size_t siz1, size_t siz2)
+{

• /* Figure out if the addition operation is safe before performing it. */
• if (SIZE_MAX - siz1 < siz2)
• {

•  toolong (procdata);
  

• }
• else if (procdata->pathsize < (siz1+siz2))
• {

•  procdata->pathsize = siz1+siz2;
  

•  procdata->original_filename = x2nrealloc (procdata->original_filename,
  

•                                           &procdata->pathsize,
  

•                                           1);
  

• }
  +}

static int
visit_old_format(struct process_data *procdata, void *context)
{

• register char *s;

• register size_t i;
  (void) context;

  /* Get the offset in the path where this path info starts. */
  @@ -479,20 +505,35 @@ visit_old_format(struct process_data *pr
  procdata->count += getw (procdata->fp) - LOCATEDB_OLD_OFFSET;
  else
  procdata->count += procdata->c - LOCATEDB_OLD_OFFSET;

• assert(procdata->count > 0);

• /* Overlay the old path with the remainder of the new. */
• for (s = procdata->original_filename + procdata->count;

• /* Overlay the old path with the remainder of the new. Read
• • more data until we get to the next filename.
• */
• for (i=procdata->count;
  (procdata->c = getc (procdata->fp)) > LOCATEDB_OLD_ESCAPE;)

• if (procdata->c < 0200)

•  *s++ = procdata->c;              /* An ordinary character.  */
  

• else

•  {
  

•   /* Bigram markers have the high bit set. */
  

•   procdata->c &= 0177;
  

•   *s++ = procdata->bigram1[procdata->c];
  

•   *s++ = procdata->bigram2[procdata->c];
  

•  }
  

• *s-- = '\0';

• {

•  if (procdata->c < 0200)
  

•   {
  

•     /* An ordinary character. */  
  

•     extend (procdata, i, 1u);
  

•     procdata->original_filename[i++] = procdata->c;
  

•   }
  

•  else
  

•   {
  

•     /* Bigram markers have the high bit set. */
  

•     extend (procdata, i, 2u);
  

•     procdata->c &= 0177;
  

•     procdata->original_filename[i++] = procdata->bigram1[procdata->c];
  

•     procdata->original_filename[i++] = procdata->bigram2[procdata->c];
  

•   }
  

• }

• /* Consider the case where we executed the loop body zero times; we

• • still need space for the terminating null byte.

• */

• extend (procdata, i, 1u);

• procdata->original_filename[i] = 0;

  procdata->munged_filename = procdata->original_filename;

VIII. THANKS

Thanks to Rob Holland <[email protected]> and Tavis Ormandy.

VIII. CVE INFORMATION

The identifier CVE-2007-2452 been assigned for this issue.