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Posted on 10 September 2013
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FreeBSD-SA-13:11.sendfile Security Advisory
The FreeBSD Project
Topic: Kernel memory disclosure in sendfile(2)
Category: core
Module: sendfile
Announced: 2013-09-10
Credits: Ed Maste
Affects: FreeBSD 9.2-RC1 and 9.2-RC2
Corrected: 2013-09-10 10:07:21 UTC (stable/9, 9.2-STABLE)
2013-09-10 10:08:20 UTC (releng/9.2, 9.2-RC1-p2)
2013-09-10 10:08:20 UTC (releng/9.2, 9.2-RC2-p2)
CVE Name: CVE-2013-5666
For general information regarding FreeBSD Security Advisories,
including descriptions of the fields above, security branches, and the
following sections, please visit <URL:http://security.FreeBSD.org/>.
I. Background
The sendfile(2) system call allows a server application (such as an
HTTP or FTP server) to transmit the contents of a file over a network
connection without first copying it to application memory. High
performance servers such as Apache and ftpd use sendfile.
II. Problem Description
On affected systems, if the length passed to sendfile(2) is non-zero
and greater than the length of the file being transmitted, sendfile(2)
will pad the transmission up to the requested length or the next
pagesize boundary, whichever is smaller.
The content of the additional bytes transmitted in this manner depends
on the underlying filesystem, but may potentially include information
useful to an attacker.
III. Impact
An unprivileged user with the ability to run arbitrary code may be
able to obtain arbitrary kernel memory contents.
IV. Workaround
No workaround is available.
V. Solution
Perform one of the following:
1) Upgrade your vulnerable system to a supported FreeBSD stable or
release / security branch (releng) dated after the correction date.
2) To update your vulnerable system via a source code patch:
The following patches have been verified to apply to the applicable
FreeBSD release branches.
a) Download the relevant patch from the location below, and verify the
detached PGP signature using your PGP utility.
[FreeBSD 9.2-STABLE]
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-13:11/sendfile-9.2-stable.patch
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-13:11/sendfile-9.2-stable.patch.asc
# gpg --verify sendfile-9.2-stable.patch.asc
[FreeBSD 9.2-RC1 and 9.2-RC2]
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-13:11/sendfile-9.2-rc.patch
# fetch http://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-13:11/sendfile-9.2-rc.patch.asc
# gpg --verify sendfile-9.2-rc.patch.asc
b) Apply the patch.
# cd /usr/src
# patch < /path/to/patch
c) Recompile your kernel as described in
<URL:http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/kernelconfig.html> and reboot the
system.
3) To update your vulnerable system via a binary patch:
Systems running a RELEASE version of FreeBSD on the i386 or amd64
platforms can be updated via the freebsd-update(8) utility:
# freebsd-update fetch
# freebsd-update install
VI. Correction details
The following list contains the correction revision numbers for each
affected branch.
Branch/path Revision
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
stable/9/ r255443
releng/9.2/ r255444
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
To see which files were modified by a particular revision, run the
following command, replacing NNNNNN with the revision number, on a
machine with Subversion installed:
# svn diff -cNNNNNN --summarize svn://svn.freebsd.org/base
Or visit the following URL, replacing NNNNNN with the revision number:
<URL:http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=NNNNNN>
VII. References
<URL:http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2013-5666>
The latest revision of this advisory is available at
<URL:http://security.FreeBSD.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-13:11.sendfile.asc>
