CAPEC-9

Detailed Abstraction Level
Meta — Very abstract, high-level category
Standard — Specific enough to understand
Detailed — Tied to specific technique Draft MITRE CAPEC Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development
Incomplete — Partially defined
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CAPEC Likelihood: High Severity: High
Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities

Description

This attack targets command-line utilities available in a number of shells. An adversary can leverage a vulnerability found in a command-line utility to escalate privilege to root.

Prerequisites

The target host exposes a command-line utility to the user.

The command-line utility exposed by the target host has a buffer overflow vulnerability that can be exploited.

Mitigations

Carefully review the service's implementation before making it available to user. For instance you can use manual or automated code review to uncover vulnerabilities such as buffer overflow.

Use a language or compiler that performs automatic bounds checking.

Use an abstraction library to abstract away risky APIs. Not a complete solution.

Compiler-based canary mechanisms such as StackGuard, ProPolice and the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag. Unless this provides automatic bounds checking, it is not a complete solution.

Operational: Use OS-level preventative functionality. Not a complete solution.

Apply the latest patches to your user exposed services. This may not be a complete solution, especially against a zero day attack.

Do not unnecessarily expose services.

Skills Required

[Low] An adversary can simply overflow a buffer by inserting a long string into an adversary-modifiable injection vector. The result can be a DoS.

[High] Exploiting a buffer overflow to inject malicious code into the stack of a software system or even the heap can require a higher skill level.