CVE-2018-5392

mingw-w64 version 5.0.4 by default produces executables that opt in to ASLR, but are not compatible with ASLR. ASLR is an exploit mitigation technique used by modern Windows platforms. For ASLR to function, Windows executables must contain a relocations table. Despite containing the Dynamic base PE header, which indicates ASLR compatibility, Windows executables produced by mingw-w64 have the relocations table stripped from them by default. This means that executables produced by mingw-w64 are vulnerable to return-oriented programming (ROP) attacks. Windows executables generated by mingw-w64 claim to be ASLR compatible, but are not. Vulnerabilities in such executables are more easily exploitable as a result.

Weakness

The product accesses or uses a pointer that has not been initialized.

Affected Software

Extended Description

If the pointer contains an uninitialized value, then the value might not point to a valid memory location. This could cause the product to read from or write to unexpected memory locations, leading to a denial of service. If the uninitialized pointer is used as a function call, then arbitrary functions could be invoked. If an attacker can influence the portion of uninitialized memory that is contained in the pointer, this weakness could be leveraged to execute code or perform other attacks. Depending on memory layout, associated memory management behaviors, and product operation, the attacker might be able to influence the contents of the uninitialized pointer, thus gaining more fine-grained control of the memory location to be accessed.

References

• https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/307144
• https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/307144