[Comm-en] System call via buffer overflow not working

[Michael Shigorin]

On Fri, Jan 21, 2005 at 05:32:42PM -0500, Aaron McDonald wrote:
> Linux Magazine has a buffer overflow article in the February
> 2005 issue. I enjoyed the article because I'd never read much
> about how to compromise a system using a buffer overflow
> strategy. I attempted to run two of the buffer overflow
> examples on my ALT Linux Sisyphus (20041129) box but found that
> the examples didn't work.

Ouch! :)

> I tried the examples on my Slackware 9.1 box (2.4 kernel) and
> everything worked!

Wonders.

> This second strategy involves storing a command in an
> environment variable and then passing this parameter to the
> system() function via a buffer overflow. In my case, the
> system() function is being called but it fails to execute the
> specified command.

I know that ALT's glibc has some hardening and sanitizing patches
-- you may want to grab src.rpm and examine them.

> I've included all the details below if anyone cares to look
> into this. I'm not dying to know the answer but it'd be cool to
> know what's going on here.

Not sure whether it's proper but if you're positively interested
it may be worth asking security at .

-- 
 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike at altlinux.ru>
  ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/