CVE-2019-18634

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ImportantImportant ImpactWhat does this mean?
DescriptionStatementMitigationAdditional informationAffected PackagesCVSS Score DetailsWeakness (CWE)FAQ

Description

A flaw was found in the Sudo application when the ’pwfeedback' option is set to true on the sudoers file. An authenticated user can use this vulnerability to trigger a stack-based buffer overflow under certain conditions even without Sudo privileges. The buffer overflow may allow an attacker to expose or corrupt memory information, crash the Sudo application, or possibly inject code to be run as a root user.

A flaw was found in the Sudo application when the ’pwfeedback' option is set to true on the sudoers file. An authenticated user can use this vulnerability to trigger a stack-based buffer overflow under certain conditions even without Sudo privileges. The buffer overflow may allow an attacker to expose or corrupt memory information, crash the Sudo application, or possibly inject code to be run as a root user.

Statement

This flaw can only be exploited if the option `pwfeedback` is enabled in sudo configuration. This option is not enabled by default in any version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The sudo packages distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions are compiled using gcc's stack-protector feature. The "Stack Smashing Protection" may help mitigate code execution attacks for this flaw. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is not affected as it doesn't include the commit which introduced the vulnerability.

This flaw can only be exploited if the option pwfeedback is enabled in sudo configuration. This option is not enabled by default in any version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The sudo packages distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions are compiled using gcc's stack-protector feature. The "Stack Smashing Protection" may help mitigate code execution attacks for this flaw. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is not affected as it doesn't include the commit which introduced the vulnerability.

Mitigation

Please follow the steps bellow as mitigation:

1. Check the default properties set for sudo by running:

    $ sudo -l
    [sudo] password for user:
    Matching Defaults entries for users on localhost:
        !visiblepw, pwfeedback, always_set_home, match_group_by_gid, always_query_group_plugin, env_reset, env_keep="COLORS DISPLAY HOSTNAME HISTSIZE KDEDIR LS_COLORS",
    env_keep+="MAIL PS1 PS2 QTDIR USERNAME LANG LC_ADDRESS LC_CTYPE", env_keep+="LC_COLLATE LC_IDENTIFICATION
        LC_MEASUREMENT LC_MESSAGES", env_keep+="LC_MONETARY LC_NAME LC_NUMERIC LC_PAPER LC_TELEPHONE", env_keep+="LC_TIME LC_ALL LANGUAGE LINGUAS _XKB_CHARSET XAUTHORITY", secure_path=/sbin\:/bin\:/usr/sbin\:/usr/bin

2. If `pwfeedback` is enabled as shown above, edit your `/etc/sudoers` file, changing the line:

    Defaults pwfeedback

    To:

    Defaults !pwfeedback

    This will disable visual feedback on password typing, making sure the attack is not possible anymore.

Additional information

  • Bugzilla 1796944: sudo: Stack based buffer overflow when pwfeedback is enabled
  • CWE-121: Stack-based Buffer Overflow
  • FAQ: Frequently asked questions about CVE-2019-18634

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
Red HatNVD

CVSS v3 Base Score

7.8

7.8

Attack Vector

Local

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Low

Privileges Required

Low

Low

User Interaction

None

None

Scope

Unchanged

Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact

High

High

Integrity Impact

High

High

Availability Impact

High

High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?

  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • The term "Affected" means that our Analysis team has determined that this product, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or OpenShift Container Platform 4, is affected by this vulnerability and a fix may be released to address this issue in the near future. This includes all minor releases of this product unless noted otherwise in the Statement text.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

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