TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

ProFTPD TELNET_IAC Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-10-229: November 2nd, 2010

CVSS Score

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

TippingPoint™ IPS Customer Protection

TippingPoint IPS customers are protected against this vulnerability by Digital Vaccine protection filter ID 10641. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of ProFTPD. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability.

The flaw exists within the proftpd server component which listens by default on TCP port 21. When reading user input if a TELNET_IAC escape sequence is encountered the process miscalculates a buffer length counter value allowing a user controlled copy of data to a stack buffer. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code under the context of the proftpd process.

Vendor Response

ProFTPD states:

Patch committed to CVS with accompanying regression test, and backported to
1.3.3 branch.
http://bugs.proftpd.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3521


Disclosure Timeline

    2010-09-24 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2010-11-02 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Anonymous