Title: Elm Subject Line Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
Elm is a popular Mail User Agent distributed with various versions of the UNIX Operating System. This vulnerability affects the version distributed by Hewlett Packard.
This vulnerability also affects other operating systems using the 2.5alpha3 version of the Elm client with setuid and or setgid permissions on the program. The version of the elm client installed on systems may be determined by issuing the "elm -v" command.
A problem in the storage of the subject line by the client can result in a buffer overflow, and arbitrary execution of code. The problem discovered is in the -s switch of the elm client, which can be used to supply a subject to a mail on the command line.
By supplying a long subject line, it is possible to overflow the memory buffer used to store the contents of the subject line. Inputting 5376 characters in the -s argument results in the overwriting of stack variables, including the return address. This problem could be used to execute arbitrary code, or gain the egid of mail.
Affected Products:
- Elm Development Group ELM 2.5.0alpha3
- HP HP-UX 11.0.0
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