Heap-based buffer overflow in the tftp_request function in tftp.c in dnsmasq before 2.50, when --enable-tftp is used, might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long filename in a TFTP packet, as demonstrated by a read (aka RRQ) request.

The remote NewStart CGSL host, running version CORE 5.04 / MAIN 5.04, has dnsmasq packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities:

  - The DNS protocol, as implemented in (1) BIND 8 and 9 before 9.5.0-P1, 9.4.2-P1, and 9.3.5-P1; (2)     Microsoft DNS in Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP2 and SP3, and Server 2003 SP1 and SP2; and other implementations     allow remote attackers to spoof DNS traffic via a birthday attack that uses in-bailiwick referrals to     conduct cache poisoning against recursive resolvers, related to insufficient randomness of DNS transaction     IDs and source ports, aka DNS Insufficient Socket Entropy Vulnerability or the Kaminsky bug.
    (CVE-2008-1447)

  - Heap-based buffer overflow in the tftp_request function in tftp.c in dnsmasq before 2.50, when --enable-     tftp is used, might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long filename in a TFTP packet,     as demonstrated by a read (aka RRQ) request. (CVE-2009-2957)

  - The tftp_request function in tftp.c in dnsmasq before 2.50, when --enable-tftp is used, allows remote     attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and daemon crash) via a TFTP read (aka     RRQ) request with a malformed blksize option. (CVE-2009-2958)

  - Dnsmasq before 2.66test2, when used with certain libvirt configurations, replies to queries from     prohibited interfaces, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (traffic amplification)     via spoofed TCP based DNS queries. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for     CVE-2012-3411. (CVE-2013-0198)

  - A flaw was found in dnsmasq before version 2.83. When getting a reply from a forwarded query, dnsmasq     checks in the forward.c:reply_query() if the reply destination address/port is used by the pending     forwarded queries. However, it does not use the address/port to retrieve the exact forwarded query,     substantially reducing the number of attempts an attacker on the network would have to perform to forge a     reply and get it accepted by dnsmasq. This issue contrasts with RFC5452, which specifies a query's     attributes that all must be used to match a reply. This flaw allows an attacker to perform a DNS Cache     Poisoning attack. If chained with CVE-2020-25685 or CVE-2020-25686, the attack complexity of a successful     attack is reduced. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data integrity. (CVE-2020-25684)

  - A flaw was found in dnsmasq before version 2.83. When getting a reply from a forwarded query, dnsmasq     checks in forward.c:reply_query(), which is the forwarded query that matches the reply, by only using a     weak hash of the query name. Due to the weak hash (CRC32 when dnsmasq is compiled without DNSSEC, SHA-1     when it is) this flaw allows an off-path attacker to find several different domains all having the same     hash, substantially reducing the number of attempts they would have to perform to forge a reply and get it     accepted by dnsmasq. This is in contrast with RFC5452, which specifies that the query name is one of the     attributes of a query that must be used to match a reply. This flaw could be abused to perform a DNS Cache     Poisoning attack. If chained with CVE-2020-25684 the attack complexity of a successful attack is reduced.
    The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data integrity. (CVE-2020-25685)

  - A flaw was found in dnsmasq before version 2.83. When receiving a query, dnsmasq does not check for an     existing pending request for the same name and forwards a new request. By default, a maximum of 150     pending queries can be sent to upstream servers, so there can be at most 150 queries for the same name.
    This flaw allows an off-path attacker on the network to substantially reduce the number of attempts that     it would have to perform to forge a reply and have it accepted by dnsmasq. This issue is mentioned in the     Birthday Attacks section of RFC5452. If chained with CVE-2020-25684, the attack complexity of a     successful attack is reduced. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data integrity.
    (CVE-2020-25686)

  - An issue was discovered in Dnsmasq before 2.90. The default maximum EDNS.0 UDP packet size was set to 4096     but should be 1232 because of DNS Flag Day 2020. (CVE-2023-28450)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote OracleVM system is missing necessary patches to address critical security updates :

CVE-2009-2957 Heap-based buffer overflow in the tftp_request function in tftp.c in dnsmasq before 2.50, when --enable-tftp is used, might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long filename in a TFTP packet, as demonstrated by a read (aka RRQ) request.
CVE-2009-2958 The tftp_request function in tftp.c in dnsmasq before 2.50, when 

--enable-tftp is used, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and daemon crash) via a TFTP read (aka RRQ) request with a malformed blksize option.

  - problems with strings when enabling tftp (CVE-2009-2957,     CVE-2009-2957)

  - Resolves: rhbg#519021

  - update to new upstream version

  - fixes for CVE-2008-1447/CERT VU#800113

  - Resolves: rhbz#454869

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2009:1238 :

An updated dnsmasq package that fixes two security issues is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

Dnsmasq is a lightweight and easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server.

Core Security Technologies discovered a heap overflow flaw in dnsmasq when the TFTP service is enabled (the '--enable-tftp' command line option, or by enabling 'enable-tftp' in '/etc/dnsmasq.conf'). If the configured tftp-root is sufficiently long, and a remote user sends a request that sends a long file name, dnsmasq could crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the dnsmasq service (usually the unprivileged 'nobody' user). (CVE-2009-2957)

A NULL pointer dereference flaw was discovered in dnsmasq when the TFTP service is enabled. This flaw could allow a malicious TFTP client to crash the dnsmasq service. (CVE-2009-2958)

Note: The default tftp-root is '/var/ftpd', which is short enough to make it difficult to exploit the CVE-2009-2957 issue; if a longer directory name is used, arbitrary code execution may be possible. As well, the dnsmasq package distributed by Red Hat does not have TFTP support enabled by default.

All users of dnsmasq should upgrade to this updated package, which contains a backported patch to correct these issues. After installing the updated package, the dnsmasq service must be restarted for the update to take effect.

CVE-2009-2957, CVE-2009-2958 dnsmasq: multiple vulnerabilities in TFTP server

Core Security Technologies discovered a heap overflow flaw in dnsmasq when the TFTP service is enabled (the '--enable-tftp' command line option, or by enabling 'enable-tftp' in '/etc/dnsmasq.conf'). If the configured tftp-root is sufficiently long, and a remote user sends a request that sends a long file name, dnsmasq could crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the dnsmasq service (usually the unprivileged 'nobody' user). (CVE-2009-2957)

A NULL pointer dereference flaw was discovered in dnsmasq when the TFTP service is enabled. This flaw could allow a malicious TFTP client to crash the dnsmasq service. (CVE-2009-2958)

Note: The default tftp-root is '/var/ftpd', which is short enough to make it difficult to exploit the CVE-2009-2957 issue; if a longer directory name is used, arbitrary code execution may be possible. As well, the dnsmasq package distributed by Red Hat does not have TFTP support enabled by default.

After installing the updated package, the dnsmasq service must be restarted for the update to take effect.

Several remote vulnerabilities have been discovered in the TFTP component of dnsmasq. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems :

  - CVE-2009-2957     A buffer overflow in TFTP processing may enable     arbitrary code execution to attackers which are     permitted to use the TFTP service.

  - CVE-2009-2958     Malicious TFTP clients may crash dnsmasq, leading to     denial of service.

An updated dnsmasq package that fixes two security issues is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

Dnsmasq is a lightweight and easy to configure DNS forwarder and DHCP server.

Core Security Technologies discovered a heap overflow flaw in dnsmasq when the TFTP service is enabled (the '--enable-tftp' command line option, or by enabling 'enable-tftp' in '/etc/dnsmasq.conf'). If the configured tftp-root is sufficiently long, and a remote user sends a request that sends a long file name, dnsmasq could crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the dnsmasq service (usually the unprivileged 'nobody' user). (CVE-2009-2957)

A NULL pointer dereference flaw was discovered in dnsmasq when the TFTP service is enabled. This flaw could allow a malicious TFTP client to crash the dnsmasq service. (CVE-2009-2958)

Note: The default tftp-root is '/var/ftpd', which is short enough to make it difficult to exploit the CVE-2009-2957 issue; if a longer directory name is used, arbitrary code execution may be possible. As well, the dnsmasq package distributed by Red Hat does not have TFTP support enabled by default.

All users of dnsmasq should upgrade to this updated package, which contains a backported patch to correct these issues. After installing the updated package, the dnsmasq service must be restarted for the update to take effect.

This update fixes two security issues with dnsmasq's tftp server:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2957 http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2958

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200909-19 (Dnsmasq: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in the TFTP functionality     included in Dnsmasq:
    Pablo Jorge and Alberto Solino     discovered a heap-based buffer overflow (CVE-2009-2957).
    An     anonymous researcher reported a NULL pointer reference     (CVE-2009-2958).
  Impact :

    A remote attacker in the local network could exploit these     vulnerabilities by sending specially crafted TFTP requests to a machine     running Dnsmasq, possibly resulting in the remote execution of     arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the daemon, or a     Denial of Service. NOTE: The TFTP server is not enabled by default.
  Workaround :

    You can disable the TFTP server either at buildtime by not enabling the     'tftp' USE flag, or at runtime. Make sure '--enable-tftp' is not set in     the DNSMASQ_OPTS variable in the /etc/conf.d/dnsmasq file and     'enable-tftp' is not set in /etc/dnsmasq.conf, either of which would     enable TFTP support if it is compiled in.

The remote host is running dnsmasq, a DNS and TFTP server. 

The version of dnsmasq installed on the remote host reports itself as lower than 2.50.  Such versions include a TFTP server that is reportedly affected by a number of issues:

  - A remote heap-overflow vulnerability exists because the     software fails to properly bounds-check user-supplied     input before copying it into an insufficiently-sized     memory buffer. (CVE-2009-2957)

  - A malformed TFTP packet can crash dnsmasq with a NULL     pointer dereference. (CVE-2009-2958)

Simon Kelley reports :

Fix security problem which allowed any host permitted to do TFTP to possibly compromise dnsmasq by remote buffer overflow when TFTP enabled.

Fix a problem which allowed a malicious TFTP client to crash dnsmasq.

IvAin Arce, Pablo HernAin Jorge, Alejandro Pablo Rodriguez, MartAn Coco, Alberto SoliAto Testa and Pablo Annetta discovered that Dnsmasq did not properly validate its input when processing TFTP requests for files with long names. A remote attacker could cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code with user privileges. Dnsmasq runs as the 'dnsmasq' user by default on Ubuntu. (CVE-2009-2957)

Steve Grubb discovered that Dnsmasq could be made to dereference a NULL pointer when processing certain TFTP requests. A remote attacker could cause a denial of service by sending a crafted TFTP request.
(CVE-2009-2958).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
193540	NewStart CGSL CORE 5.04 / MAIN 5.04 : dnsmasq Multiple Vulnerabilities (NS-SA-2024-0011)	Nessus	NewStart CGSL Local Security Checks	medium
79464	OracleVM 2.1 : dnsmasq (OVMSA-2009-0022)	Nessus	OracleVM Local Security Checks	medium
67918	Oracle Linux 5 : dnsmasq (ELSA-2009-1238)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
60649	Scientific Linux Security Update : dnsmasq on SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	medium
44741	Debian DSA-1876-1 : dnsmasq - buffer overflow	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	medium
43778	CentOS 5 : dnsmasq (CESA-2009:1238)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	medium
42123	Fedora 11 : dnsmasq-2.46-3.fc11 (2009-10285)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
42121	Fedora 10 : dnsmasq-2.46-2.fc10 (2009-10252)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
41023	GLSA-200909-19 : Dnsmasq: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	medium
40875	dnsmasq < 2.50 Multiple Remote TFTP Vulnerabilities	Nessus	DNS	critical
40858	FreeBSD : dnsmasq -- TFTP server remote code injection vulnerability (80aa98e0-97b4-11de-b946-0030843d3802)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	medium
40848	Ubuntu 8.04 LTS / 8.10 / 9.04 : dnsmasq vulnerabilities (USN-827-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	medium
40834	RHEL 5 : dnsmasq (RHSA-2009:1238)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2009-2957

critical

Tenable Plugins

medium

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medium

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medium

medium

medium

medium

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critical

medium

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medium