TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

Novell Netmail User Authentication Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

ZDI-06-036: October 31st, 2006

CVE ID

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

TippingPoint™ IPS Customer Protection

TippingPoint IPS customers are protected against this vulnerability by Digital Vaccine protection filter ID 4693. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Novell Netmail. Exploitation does not require authentication.

The specific flaw exists within the user authentication component of Novell Netmail. The routine responsible for authenticating Netmail users lacks adequate bounds checking when processing a username containing one or more period (.) characters. The affected code is reused by several Netmail services including SMTP, POP, IMAP, HTTP and the proprietary NMAP. Each of these services is vulnerable to an exploitable stack-based buffer overflow.

Vendor Response

Novell has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:

Disclosure Timeline

    2006-09-08 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2006-10-31 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Anonymous