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CVE-2023-28379: TALOS-2023-1738 || Cisco Talos Intelligence Group

A memory corruption vulnerability exists in the HTTP Server form boundary functionality of Weston Embedded uC-HTTP v3.01.01. A specially crafted network packet can lead to code execution. An attacker can send a malicious packet to trigger this vulnerability.

CVE
#vulnerability#cisco#git#intel

SUMMARY

A memory corruption vulnerability exists in the HTTP Server form boundary functionality of Weston Embedded uC-HTTP v3.01.01. A specially crafted network packet can lead to code execution. An attacker can send a malicious packet to trigger this vulnerability.

CONFIRMED VULNERABLE VERSIONS

The versions below were either tested or verified to be vulnerable by Talos or confirmed to be vulnerable by the vendor.

Weston Embedded uC-HTTP v3.01.01
Weston Embedded Cesium NET 3.07.01
Silicon Labs Gecko Platform 4.3.1.0

PRODUCT URLS

uC-HTTP - https://weston-embedded.com/micrium/overview Cesium NET - https://www.weston-embedded.com/cesium-cs-net Gecko Platform - https://www.silabs.com/developers/gecko-software-development-kit

CVSSv3 SCORE

9.0 - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE

CWE-119 - Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

DETAILS

The uC-HTTP server implementation is designed to be used on embedded systems that are running the µC/OS II or µC/OS III RTOS kernels. This HTTP server supports many features including persistent connections, form processing, chunked transfer encoding, HTTP header fields processing, HTTP query string processing and dynamic content.

When parsing the boundary string of an HTTP request, the length of that boundary string is not checked before it is used as an index into a buffer on the heap whose length is 72 bytes. If the value of len is greater than or equal to 72 bytes, the NULL termination at [0] could result in heap corruption.

File: http-s_req.c
1663:                                               p_val++;          /* Remove space before boundary val.                    */
1664:                                               p_val = HTTP_StrGraphSrchFirst(p_val,
1665:                                                                              len);
1666:                                               len   = p_field_end - p_val;
...
1672:                                                                 /* Make sure to create a string.                        */
1673:                                               p_conn->FormBoundaryPtr[len] = ASCII_CHAR_NULL;         /* [0] */

Because of the memory layout is implemented by the uC-LIB Memory Library, this one byte overwrite results in an arbitrary allocation controlled by the attacker, which could be used to gain code execution as explained below.

When a heap object is freed using uC-LIB Memory Mem_DynPoolBlkFree, the pointer to the next free chunk of memory within that pool is stored in the first 4 bytes of that memory block [0].

File: lib_mem.c
2072: void  Mem_DynPoolBlkFree (MEM_DYN_POOL  *p_pool,
2073:                           void          *p_blk,
2074:                           LIB_ERR       *p_err)
2075: {
...
2109:    *((void **)p_blk)   = p_pool->BlkFreePtr;              /* [0] */

So, when this NULL byte overwrite occurs and the following heap block has been allocated and freed previously, this will overwrite the least significant byte of the next free pointer address. It is possible for the attacker to influence allocations such that when overwriting the least significant byte, the new pointer address will point to a buffer containing attacker controlled data. When this happens, on the next allocation of the heap pool which contains the corrupted free pointer, that same corrupt pointer will be dereferenced and stored in the pool object as the next free pointer [1]. This dereferenced value is attacker-controlled, since the corrupted pointer now points to an attacker controlled buffer as a result of this vulnerability. On the next call to Mem_DynPoolBlkGet, the dereferenced attacker controlled value will be the pointer, which is allocated [0]. The result of this is that the attacker has the ability to allocate memory at an arbitrary address. The impact of an attacker being able to allocate an arbitrary address is that now the attacker can write data anywhere in the program memory space, which could lead to things like overwriting stack data or a function pointer in order to gain code execution.

File: lib_mem.c
1978: void  *Mem_DynPoolBlkGet (MEM_DYN_POOL  *p_pool,
1979:                           LIB_ERR       *p_err)
1980: {
...
2014:         p_blk              = p_pool->BlkFreePtr;          /* [0] */
2015:         p_pool->BlkFreePtr = *((void **)p_blk);           /* [1] */

Crash Information

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x565694ee in Mem_DynPoolBlkGet (p_pool=0x565764fc <HTTP_Heap+540>, p_err=0xffffd3ac) at uc-lib/lib_mem.c:2015
2015            p_pool->BlkFreePtr = *((void **)p_blk);
(gdb) i r
eax            0x41414141          1094795585
ecx            0x565772d9          1448571609
edx            0x3                 3
ebx            0x56575f64          1448566628
esp            0xffffd360          0xffffd360
ebp            0xffffd378          0xffffd378
esi            0xf7f91000          -134672384
edi            0xf7f91000          -134672384
eip            0x565694ee          0x565694ee <Mem_DynPoolBlkGet+124>
eflags         0x10206             [ PF IF RF ]
cs             0x23                35
ss             0x2b                43
ds             0x2b                43
es             0x2b                43
fs             0x0                 0
gs             0x63                99
k0             0x0                 0
k1             0x0                 0
k2             0x0                 0
k3             0x0                 0
k4             0x0                 0
k5             0x0                 0
k6             0x0                 0
k7             0x0                 0
(gdb) bt
#0  0x565694ee in Mem_DynPoolBlkGet (p_pool=0x565764fc <HTTP_Heap+540>, p_err=0xffffd3ac) at uc-lib/lib_mem.c:2015
#1  0x56563ffa in HTTPsMem_ReqHdrGet (p_instance=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>, p_conn=0x565768ac <HTTP_Heap+1484>, hdr_field=HTTP_HDR_FIELD_ACCEPT, val_type=HTTP_HDR_VAL_TYPE_STR_DYN, p_err=0xffffd47c)
    at Server/Source/http-s_mem.c:2141
#2  0x5655a2b6 in HTTPsReq_HdrParse (p_instance=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>, p_conn=0x565768ac <HTTP_Heap+1484>, p_err=0xffffd47c) at Server/Source/http-s_req.c:1780
#3  0x56558d0d in HTTPsReq_Handle (p_instance=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>, p_conn=0x565768ac <HTTP_Heap+1484>) at Server/Source/http-s_req.c:325
#4  0x5655ca3e in HTTPsConn_Process (p_instance=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>) at Server/Source/http-s_conn.c:166
#5  0x5655edc0 in HTTPsTask_InstanceTaskHandler (p_instance=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>) at Server/Source/http-s_task.c:814
#6  0x5655eb26 in HTTPsTask_InstanceTask (p_data=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>) at Server/Source/http-s_task.c:653
#7  0x565668d1 in KAL_TaskCreate (task_handle=..., p_fnct=0x5655eb01 <HTTPsTask_InstanceTask>, p_task_arg=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>, prio=17 '\021', p_cfg=0x0, p_err=0xffffd5d0)
    at uc-shims/Source/kal-shim.c:59
#8  0x5655e845 in HTTPsTask_InstanceTaskCreate (p_instance=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>, p_err=0xffffd64c) at Server/Source/http-s_task.c:331
#9  0x5655c23d in HTTPs_InstanceStart (p_instance=0x56576380 <HTTP_Heap+160>, p_err=0xffffd64c) at Server/Source/http-s.c:812
#10 0x56557f01 in main (argc=1, argv=0xffffd714) at server_app.c:156
(gdb) 

Mitigation

This vulnerability can be mitigated by disabling form and multipart form processing in your application. Disabling this requires changes to the configuration header and the instance configuration file as noted below:

File: http-s_cfg.h
147: /*
148: *********************************************************************************************************
149: *                                     HTTP SERVER FORM CONFIGURATION
150: *
151: * Note(s) : (1) Configure HTTPs_CFG_FORM_EN             to enable/disable           Form processing source code.
152: *
153: *           (2) Configure HTTPs_CFG_FORM_MULTIPART_EN   to enable/disable multipart Form processing source code.
154: *********************************************************************************************************
155: */
156: 
157:                                                                 /* Configure Form processing feature (see Note #1):     */
158: #define  HTTPs_CFG_FORM_EN                        DEF_DISABLED
159:                                                                 /*   DEF_DISABLED   Form processing DISABLED            */
160:                                                                 /*   DEF_ENABLED    Form processing ENABLED             */
161: 
162:                                                                 /* Configure Multipart Form processing feature ...      */
163:                                                                 /* ... (see Note #2):                                   */
164: #define  HTTPs_CFG_FORM_MULTIPART_EN              DEF_DISABLED
165:                                                                 /*   DEF_DISABLED   Mutlipart Form processing DISABLED  */
166:                                                                 /*   DEF_ENABLED    Mutlipart Form processing ENABLED   */

File: app_basic_http-s_instance_cfg.c
328: *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
329: *                                      INSTANCE FORM CONFIGURATION
330: *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
331: */
332: 
333:    DEF_NULL,                                     /* .FormCfgPtr : Pointer to Form Cfg Object.            */

Another mitigation option is to modify the code within uC-HTTP itself by checking that the length used as the index is less than the configured size of the buffer.

 diff --git a/Server/Source/http-s.h b/Server/Source/http-s.h
 index a84e1db..e0880ec 100644
 --- a/Server/Source/http-s.h
 +++ b/Server/Source/http-s.h
 @@ -450,6 +450,7 @@ typedef enum https_err {
      HTTPs_ERR_REQ_HDR_POOL_LIB_FAULT,
      HTTPs_ERR_REQ_HDR_DATA_TYPE_UNKNOWN,
      HTTPs_ERR_REQ_BODY_FAULT,
 +    HTTPs_ERR_REQ_FORM_BOUNDARY_INVALID_LEN,
 
      HTTPs_ERR_KEY_VAL_CFG_POOL_SIZE_INV,
 
 diff --git a/Server/Source/http-s_mem.c b/Server/Source/http-s_mem.c
 index be6d3e8..851abe9 100644
 --- a/Server/Source/http-s_mem.c
 +++ b/Server/Source/http-s_mem.c
 @@ -49,14 +49,6 @@
 #define  HTTPs_CFG_POOLS_INIT_NBR       1
 
 
 -/*
 -*********************************************************************************************************
 -*                                             FORM DEFINES
 -*********************************************************************************************************
 -*/
 -
 -#define  HTTPs_FORM_BOUNDARY_STR_LEN_MAX                     72u
 -
 
 /*
 *********************************************************************************************************
 diff --git a/Server/Source/http-s_mem.h b/Server/Source/http-s_mem.h
 index dfd95b2..c2a0c2e 100644
 --- a/Server/Source/http-s_mem.h
 +++ b/Server/Source/http-s_mem.h
 @@ -144,6 +144,14 @@ void                 HTTPsMem_RespHdrRelease              (HTTPs_INSTANCE      *
                                                             HTTPs_CONN          *p_conn);
 #endif
 
 +/*
 +*********************************************************************************************************
 +*                                             FORM DEFINES
 +*********************************************************************************************************
 +*/
 +
 +#define  HTTPs_FORM_BOUNDARY_STR_LEN_MAX                     72u
 +
 
 /*
 *********************************************************************************************************
 diff --git a/Server/Source/http-s_req.c b/Server/Source/http-s_req.c
 index d487160..e04cd4b 100644
 --- a/Server/Source/http-s_req.c
 +++ b/Server/Source/http-s_req.c
 @@ -1665,6 +1665,11 @@ static  void  HTTPsReq_HdrParse (HTTPs_INSTANCE  *p_instance,
                                                                            len);
                                              len   = p_field_end - p_val;
 
 +                                              if (len >= HTTPs_FORM_BOUNDARY_STR_LEN_MAX) {
 +                                                 *p_err = HTTPs_ERR_REQ_FORM_BOUNDARY_INVALID_LEN;
 +                                                  return;
 +                                              }
 +
                                                                  /* Copy boundary val to Conn struct.                    */
                                              Str_Copy_N(p_conn->FormBoundaryPtr,
                                                        p_val,

TIMELINE

2023-03-29 - Vendor Disclosure
2023-06-23 - Vendor Patch Release
2023-11-14 - Public Release

Discovered by Kelly Leuschner of Cisco Talos.

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