CVE-2019-14896

A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel, version kernel-2.6.32, in Marvell WiFi chip driver. A remote attacker could cause a denial of service (system crash) or, possibly execute arbitrary code, when the lbs_ibss_join_existing function is called after a STA connects to an AP.

Weakness

A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc().

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.
• D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.
• Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.
• Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.
• For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/92.html

References

• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-03/msg00021.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/155879/Kernel-Live-Patch-Security-Notice-LSN-0061-1.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/156185/Kernel-Live-Patch-Security-Notice-LSN-0062-1.html
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-14896
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/01/msg00013.html
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/03/msg00001.html
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/D4ISVNIC44SOGXTUBCIZFSUNQJ5LRKNZ/
• https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MN6MLCN7G7VFTSXSZYXKXEFCUMFBUAXQ/
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200103-0001/
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/4225-1/
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/4225-2/
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/4226-1/
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/4227-1/
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/4227-2/
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/4228-1/
• https://usn.ubuntu.com/4228-2/