PPP Daemon Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Security researchers have released details of a buffer overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability affecting the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP, RFC 1968) daemon (pppd). They claim an unauthenticated remote user could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.

Threat ID:: CC-3388
Category:
Threat Severity:: Low
Threat Vector:
Published:: 9 March 2020 12:00 AM

Report a cyber attack: call 0300 303 5222 or email [email protected]

Summary

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

pppd - Versions 2.4.2 to 2.4.8

Threat details

The vulnerability is a result of a flaw in the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP, RFC 3748) packet processing used by pppd. During validation of EAP packets, pppd will incorrectly verify the size of the packets before passing them into memory, resulting in packets of arbitrary length being stored. pppd works in conjunction with kernel drivers and typically run with elevated privileges.

An attacker passing unrequested EAP packets to a vulnerable system can force a stack buffer overflow and resulting in unverified data being passed to memory. This data can then be used to execute arbitrary code using pppd's privileges.

For further information:

Remediation steps

Type	Step
	Affected organisations are encouraged to contact their relevant suppliers to apply any necessary updates.

CVE Vulnerabilities

Status

CVE-2020-8597

Last edited: 29 June 2021 12:01 pm