J-Security Center

Title: Gaim Multiple Remote Boundary Condition Error Vulnerabilities

Severity: CRITICAL

Description:

Gaim is an instant messaging client that supports numerous protocols. It is available for the Unix and Linux platforms.

Several vulnerabilities in the handling of YMSG protocol, Oscar protocol, proxy handling, and Gaim utilities have been identified. Because of these issues, it may be possible for a remote attacker to gain unauthorized access to hosts using the vulnerable software.

Reports indicate the following 12 problems:

Due to two errors in the handling of octal decoding code used for e-mail notification, it is possible to create a condition suitable for heap-based overflow attacks.

An overflow in the parsing of Yahoo Web cookies in HTTP headers exists when handling a specially prepared cookie. Initial reports indicate a low possibility of exploitation due to circumstances in memory management of various platforms.

There is insufficient bounds checking of data returned from the Yahoo! Login page. Name and Value strings returned to the client from a system purporting to be the Yahoo! Login page could potentially result in the execution of arbitrary code on the client side.

The YMSG protocol handler is vulnerable to a buffer overflow when handling keynames of excessive sizes, usually greater than 64 bytes. Remote communications with maliciously crafted keynames can be forwarded through the Yahoo! server.

An integer overflow exists in the DirectIM handling by Gaim. A remote user sending a value to a vulnerable Gaim client with a payload length of UINT_MAX will result in an overflow in the calloc function.

Due to two errors in the handling of Quoted Printable decoding code used for e-mail notification, it is possible to create conditions suitable for heap-based overflow attacks.

The URI parsing utility contains an overflow in the handling of specially crafted URIs. An attacker could pass along a URI of excessive length to create an exploitable stack overflow.

The Get User Info utility performs inadequate bounds checking on data received from the YMSG and MSN protocol handlers. Because of this, it is possible for a remote attacker to exploit a stack overflow in the utility to execute arbitrary code.

A client-side overflow in the handling of HTTP proxy connections exists in Gaim. A remote proxy sending a string of data in excess of 8192 bytes could potentially create an exploitable stack overflow on the client system.

These issues are undergoing further analysis and will be separated into individual BIDs when analysis is complete.

*Update: Ultramagnetic, a concurrent fork of the Gaim instant messaging software, has also been reported to be affected by the issues listed under CAN-2004-0006, CAN-2004-0007 and CAN-2004-0008.

** It has been reported that Trillian also uses the vulnerable code from GAIM. Versions of Trillian from 0.71 to 0.74 and Trillian Pro 1.0, 2.0, and 2.01 have all been reported to be vulnerable.

Affected Products:

  • Cerulean Studios Trillian 0.71.0
  • Cerulean Studios Trillian 0.725.0
  • Cerulean Studios Trillian 0.73.0
  • Cerulean Studios Trillian 0.74.0
  • Cerulean Studios Trillian Pro 1.0.0
  • Cerulean Studios Trillian Pro 2.0.0
  • Cerulean Studios Trillian Pro 2.01
  • Debian Linux 3.0.0
  • Gentoo Linux 0.5.0
  • Gentoo Linux 0.7.0
  • HP Secure OS software for Linux 1.0.0
  • MandrakeSoft Corporate Server 1.0.1
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 7.1.0
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 7.2.0
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 8.0.0
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 8.0.0 ppc
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 8.1.0
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 8.1.0 ia64
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 8.2.0
  • MandrakeSoft Linux Mandrake 8.2.0 ppc
  • RedHat Fedora Core1
  • RedHat Linux 7.1.0
  • RedHat Linux 7.1.0 alpha
  • RedHat Linux 7.1.0 i386
  • RedHat Linux 7.1.0 ia64
  • RedHat Linux 7.2.0
  • RedHat Linux 7.2.0 i386
  • RedHat Linux 7.2.0 ia64
  • RedHat Linux 7.3.0
  • RedHat Linux 7.3.0 i386
  • RedHat Linux 9.0.0 i386
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.50.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.51.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.52.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.53.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.54.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.55.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.56.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.57.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.58.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.59.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.59.1
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.60.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.61.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.62.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.63.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.64.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.65.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.66.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.67.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.68.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.69.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.70.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.71.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.72.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.73.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.74.0
  • Rob Flynn Gaim 0.75.0
  • S.u.S.E. Linux 8.0.0
  • S.u.S.E. Linux 8.1.0
  • S.u.S.E. Linux Personal 8.2.0
  • S.u.S.E. Linux Personal 9.0.0
  • SGI ProPack 2.3.0
  • SGI ProPack 2.4.0
  • Sun Linux 5.0.0
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.1.0 Preview Alpha 1
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.10.0 beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.2.0 Preview Alpha 2
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.20.0 beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.3.0 Preview Alpha 3
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.40.0 Beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.50.0 beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.55.0 Beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.60.0 beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.65.0 Beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.70.0 Beta
  • Ultramagnetic Ultramagnetic 0.80.0 Beta

References:

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