The product defines a signal handler that contains code sequences that are not asynchronous-safe, i.e., the functionality is not reentrant, or it can be interrupted.
This can lead to an unexpected system state with a variety of potential consequences depending on context, including denial of service and code execution. Signal handlers are typically intended to interrupt normal functionality of a program, or even other signals, in order to notify the process of an event. When a signal handler uses global or static variables, or invokes functions that ultimately depend on such state or its associated metadata, then it could corrupt system state that is being used by normal functionality. This could subject the program to race conditions or other weaknesses that allow an attacker to cause the program state to be corrupted. While denial of service is frequently the consequence, in some cases this weakness could be leveraged for code execution. There are several different scenarios that introduce this issue: Invocation of non-reentrant functions from within the handler. One example is malloc(), which modifies internal global variables as it manages memory. Very few functions are actually reentrant. Code sequences (not necessarily function calls) contain non-atomic use of global variables, or associated metadata or structures, that can be accessed by other functionality of the program, including other signal handlers. Frequently, the same function is registered to handle multiple signals. The signal handler function is intended to run at most one time, but instead it can be invoked multiple times. This could happen by repeated delivery of the same signal, or by delivery of different signals that have the same handler function (CWE-831). Note that in some environments or contexts, it might be possible for the signal handler to be interrupted itself. If both a signal handler and the normal behavior of the product have to operate on the same set of state variables, and a signal is received in the middle of the normal execution's modifications of those variables, the variables may be in an incorrect or corrupt state during signal handler execution, and possibly still incorrect or corrupt upon return.
Threat Mapped score: 1.9
Industry: Finiancial
Threat priority: P3 - Important (Medium)
CVE: CVE-2008-4109
Signal handler uses functions that ultimately call the unsafe syslog/malloc/s*printf, leading to denial of service via multiple login attempts
CVE: CVE-2006-5051
Chain: Signal handler contains too much functionality (CWE-828), introducing a race condition (CWE-362) that leads to a double free (CWE-415).
CVE: CVE-2001-1349
unsafe calls to library functions from signal handler
CVE: CVE-2004-0794
SIGURG can be used to remotely interrupt signal handler; other variants exist.
CVE: CVE-2004-2259
SIGCHLD signal to FTP server can cause crash under heavy load while executing non-reentrant functions like malloc/free.
CVE: CVE-2002-1563
SIGCHLD not blocked in a daemon loop while counter is modified, causing counter to get out of sync.
N/A
N/A
| Phase | Note |
|---|---|
| None listed. | |
Intro: This code registers the same signal handler function with two different signals (CWE-831). If those signals are sent to the process, the handler creates a log message (specified in the first argument to the program) and exits.
Body: The handler function uses global state (globalVar and logMessage), and it can be called by both the SIGHUP and SIGTERM signals. An attack scenario might follow these lines:
char *logMessage; void handler (int sigNum) { syslog(LOG_NOTICE, "%s\n", logMessage); free(logMessage); /* artificially increase the size of the timing window to make demonstration of this weakness easier. */ sleep(10); exit(0); } int main (int argc, char* argv[]) { logMessage = strdup(argv[1]); /* Register signal handlers. */ signal(SIGHUP, handler); signal(SIGTERM, handler); /* artificially increase the size of the timing window to make demonstration of this weakness easier. */ sleep(10); }Intro: The following code registers a signal handler with multiple signals in order to log when a specific event occurs and to free associated memory before exiting.
Body: However, the following sequence of events may result in a double-free (CWE-415):
#include <signal.h> #include <syslog.h> #include <string.h> #include <stdlib.h> void *global1, *global2; char *what; void sh (int dummy) { syslog(LOG_NOTICE,"%s\n",what); free(global2); free(global1); /* Sleep statements added to expand timing window for race condition */ sleep(10); exit(0); } int main (int argc,char* argv[]) { what=argv[1]; global1=strdup(argv[2]); global2=malloc(340); signal(SIGHUP,sh); signal(SIGTERM,sh); /* Sleep statements added to expand timing window for race condition */ sleep(10); exit(0); }