← Back to team overview

kernel-packages team mailing list archive

[Bug 1381005] Re: Long stdin from terminal can result in code execution

 

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel in -proposed solves
the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the
results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-
trusty' to 'verification-done-trusty'.

If verification is not done by 5 working days from today, this fix will
be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how
to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!


** Tags added: verification-needed-trusty

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel
Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1381005

Title:
  Long stdin from terminal can result in code execution

Status in linux package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress
Status in linux source package in Trusty:
  Fix Committed
Status in linux source package in Utopic:
  In Progress
Status in linux source package in Vivid:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  Under certain conditions, the input entered from a terminal with a
  foreground process waiting for stdin, can be interpreted and executed
  by the shell.

  Steps to reproduce:
  1) Open a terminal
  2) Run a simple program that waits for stdin (like cat, tee, head, tail, ...) or even the bash-builtin command read. No need to specify arguments
  3) Type or paste exactly 4096 ASCII characters into the terminal (see sample attachment)
  4) Press Enter

  What should happen:
  The program in foreground reads 4097 characters (the last one is new line).

  What actually happens:
  Instead of reading the input, the current program exits (read() only reads one character before EOF) and the shell executes the same input starting from the second character.

  I believe that the issue can be reproduced with:
  - any terminal (tested on xterm, gnome-terminal, tty)
  - any shell (tested on bash, zsh)
  - any program that reads stdin from terminal (not attached to a pipe)

  Debugging the shell with gdb suggests that the bug is in the implementation of read(), hence libc6 or under (kernel).
  Specifically, the bug is caused by read() reading only one character (new line) when entering a text of 4096 characters in stdin on the terminal. It looks like read() is then closing the stdin descriptor.
  If the input is 4097 characters long, read() will read two characters and the shell will interpret from the 3rd character, and so on.

  Verified on:
  Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS

  Kernel:
  3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
  3.13.0-32-generic x86_64
  3.13.0-36-generic x86_64

  libc6:
  2.19-0ubuntu6
  2.19-0ubuntu6.1
  2.19-0ubuntu6.3

  I'm happy to provide more information if it helps.
  Angelo

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1381005/+subscriptions