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Thread: NetBSD Security Advisory 2006-013: sysctl(3) local denial of service




NetBSD Security Advisory 2006-013: sysctl(3) local denial of service
user name
2006-04-13 02:32:32
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		 NetBSD Security Advisory 2006-013
		 =================================

Topic:		sysctl(3) local denial of service

Version:	NetBSD-current:	source prior to March 15, 2005
		NetBSD 3.0:	affected
		NetBSD 2.1:     affected
		NetBSD 2.0.*:   affected
		NetBSD 2.0:     affected
		NetBSD 1.6.*:	affected
		NetBSD 1.6:	affected

Severity:	Any local user can crash the system

Fixed:		NetBSD-current:		March 15, 2005
		NetBSD-3-0 branch:	March 24, 2006
						(3.0.1 will include the fix)
		NetBSD-3   branch:	March 24, 2006
		NetBSD-2-1 branch:      March 24, 2006
						(2.1.1 will include the fix)
		NetBSD-2-0 branch:      March 24, 2006
						(2.0.4 will include the fix)
		NetBSD-2 branch:        March 24, 2006

Abstract
========

The user supplied buffer where results of the sysctl(3) call
are stored is
locked into physical memory without checking its size.  This
way, a malicious
user can cause a system lockup by allocating all available
physical memory on
most systems.

Technical Details
=================

The system call implementing the sysctl(3) library call
tries to lock the user
supplied result buffer into physical memory, to avoid the
interferences of
information collection with other system activity.  The size
of that buffer is
not checked against system limits.

The VM system checks whether the virtual address of the
buffer is part of the
user address space, but since the amount of virtual memory a
single user is
able to allocate exceeds the available physical memory on
most systems, a
user can cause a system lockup by exhaustion of physical
memory.

Solutions and Workarounds
=========================

For all NetBSD versions, you need to obtain fixed kernel
sources,
rebuild and install the new kernel, and reboot the system.

The fixed source may be obtained from the NetBSD CVS
repository.

The following instructions briefly summarise how to upgrade
your
kernel.  In these instructions, replace:

  ARCH     with your architecture (from uname -m), and 
  KERNCONF with the name of your kernel configuration file.

To update from CVS, re-build, and re-install the kernel:

        # cd src
        # cvs update -d -P sys/kern/kern_sysctl.c
	# ./build.sh kernel=KERNCONF
	# mv /netbsd /netbsd.old
	# cp sys/arch/ARCH/compile/obj/KERNCONF/netbsd /netbsd
	# shutdown -r now

For more information on how to do this, see:

   http:
//www.NetBSD.org/guide/en/chap-kernel.html


Thanks To
=========

Matthias Drochner for PoC code and implementing the fixes.

Revision History
================

	2006-04-12	Initial release


More Information
================

Advisories may be updated as new information becomes
available.
The most recent version of this advisory (PGP signed) can be
found at 
 
ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/security/advisories/NetBSD-S
A2006-013.txt.asc

Information about NetBSD and NetBSD security can be found at
http://www.NetBSD.org/
and http://www.NetBSD.or
g/Security/.


Copyright 2006, The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All Rights
Reserved.
Redistribution permitted only in full, unmodified form.

$NetBSD: NetBSD-SA2006-013.txt,v 1.4 2006/04/12 22:09:50
adrianp Exp $

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