[Openstack] [OSSN 0030] Bash 'shellshock' bug can lead to code injection vulnerability

Nathan Kinder nkinder at redhat.com
Fri Sep 26 20:24:53 UTC 2014


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Bash 'shellshock' bug can lead to code injection vulnerability
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### Summary ###
A bug in the GNU Bash shell (4.3 and lower) exposes a code injection
vulnerability via crafted environment variables (Shellshock,
CVE-2014-6271, CVE-2014-7169). Through network utilities such as SSH and
CGI enabled web servers, this vulnerability can become remotely
exploitable. Bash is universal to nearly all Linux distributions as well
as Apple OS X.

### Affected Services / Software ###
GNU Bash, Grizzly, Havana, Icehouse

### Discussion ###
The GNU Bash shell (4.3 and lower) is vulnerable to a code injection
attack via the setting of environment variables. This stems from a bug
in the way bash processes function definitions present in the
environment, an example might look like the following:

  env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c 'echo hello'

when executed, this command line will print:

  vulnerable
  hello

This behaviour occurs because bash continues to process the rest of the
variable string after the function definition, the name of the variable
is also unimportant.

Many programs on a Linux installation will 'shell out' to launch helper
commands. If a malicious user can set an environment variable in the
spawned shell they can execute arbitrary commands with the same user
permissions as the legitimate command. If these programs are network
connected then this vulnerability becomes remotely exploitable. To
illustrate how this might be accomplished, consider the OpenSSH forced
command mechanism. This mechanism allows commands run via SSH to be
restricted to a specific invocation, however OpenSSH will set an
environment variable 'SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND' to the command that was
requested by the user before executing the forced command. If
'SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND' contains a function definition of the form given
above, then this will be executed by bash regardless of the forced
command specified.

Note that there are many remotely accessible programs that may set one
or more environment variables before spawning a bash sub-processes,
known examples include but are not limited to:

- - CGI Enabled web servers (Apache mod_cgi, nginx, etc)
- - SSH (OpenSSH mechanisms as above)
- - DHCP (dhcpcd)

OpenStack software itself is not currently understood to be
directly affected, however deployments of OpenStack will very likely
be using GNU Bash in many places. While employed mechanisms such as
rootwrap filter environment variables, any variable that can be set via
user provided input becomes a potential security issue.

### Recommended Actions ###
Owing to the ubiquitous nature of the bash shell and its indirect use
via other programs it is highly recommended that all systems, guests and
virtual machine images update to a patched version of bash immediately.
Refer to guidance from the provider of your specific Linux distribution
for additional details.

Additionally, network filtering and IDS systems should be configured to
detect incoming requests containing bash function-like definitions.
System logs should also be interrogated for any such strings as an
indication of possible attacks.

### Contacts / References ###
This OSSN : https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/OSSN/OSSN-0030
Original LaunchPad Bug : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ossn/+bug/1374055
OpenStack Security ML : openstack-security at lists.openstack.org
OpenStack Security Group : https://launchpad.net/~openstack-ossg
Initial CVE:
  http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-6271
Secondary CVE:
  http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-7169
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