Add advisory for SMTP injection vulnerability in mail <2.6.0

[reedloden]

Need an advisory for the mail vulnerability discussed in http://www.mbsd.jp/Whitepaper/smtpi.pdf (section 3.1)

Affects <2.6.0

[reedloden]

@mikel / @bf4 / @jeremy -- any idea which commit fixed this issue? 2.6.0 fixed a ton of stuff. :/

[reedloden]

I did a git bisect using a test case I received from the author, and if I'm understanding the issue correctly, I think mikel/mail@72befdc fixed it. Let me confer with the paper author to make sure I'm seeing the right thing.

[reedloden]

He confirms it's that rev. If the unfold method is commented out, the problem returns.

[reedloden]

The paper author has informed me "BTW, while investigating the source code of Mail, I came to think the fault might be more on Net::SMTP's side. It is difficult to say who is responsible for it, Net::SMTP, Mail or application developers (library users) though."

'mail' guys... thoughts on this? In any case, should add a test to 'mail' to ensure this doesn't pop up again. :)

[skorth]

Always learning something new, thx.

[reedloden]

Request made to MITRE (and also posted to oss-security@) for a CVE. Also requested an ID from OSVDB. Sucks we have to wait for one of them before getting this advisory published.

[jeremy]

First we've heard of this for the mail lib. Forwarded to security@ruby-lang.org, too.

[bf4]

@reedloden how the heck did you find this? Do you know if the author tried to contact anyone before publishing?

[reedloden]

@bf4 The paper was posted on r/netsec. It was indirectly mentioned in an advisory for PHPMailer as well.

I'm in contact with the author, so I will ask him, but I suspect not for Ruby at least, as the issue had been fixed already (though not on purpose, it seems).

[reedloden]

It was originally posted to the WebAppSec mailing list on 2015-12-09.

[jeremy]

The mail 2.6.x fix is a coincidence. Even if it was intentional, it wouldn't be a sufficient fix for the underlying SMTP injection vuln. The referenced paper discusses this a bit: crafting otherwise-legal FWS to inject & exploit specific MTAs.

Furthermore, the fix is a side effect of incorrect behavior. Fixing that behavior in the mail lib would inadvertently re-expose the underlying SMTPi vuln that had been coincidentally masked. No good.

To rule out this risk, we need input validation in stdlib net/smtp.

[reedloden]

@jeremy

Is there a bug filed with ruby upstream to add that validation so that this
doesn't reoccur?

On Tuesday, April 5, 2016, Jeremy Daer notifications@github.com wrote:

The mail 2.6.x fix is a coincidence. Even if it was intentional, it
wouldn't be a sufficient fix for the underlying SMTP injection vuln. The
referenced paper discusses this a bit: crafting otherwise-legal FWS to
inject & exploit specific MTAs.

Furthermore, the fix is a side effect of incorrect behavior. Fixing that
behavior in the mail lib would inadvertently re-expose the underlying SMTPi
vuln that had been coincidentally masked. No good.

To rule out this risk, we need input validation in stdlib net/smtp.

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#215 (comment)

[jeremy]

@reedloden Yep, filed 2015-12-11.

[reedloden]

@jeremy Link to bug report just so I can track it?

[jeremy]

@reedloden not public; reported to security@ruby-lang.org.

[jeremy]

HackerOne report and fix: https://hackerone.com/reports/137631

Resolved in Ruby 2.4.0 release by ruby/ruby@0827a7e

[jeremy]

2.5.5.rc1 and 2.6.6.rc1 gems released with SMTP address validation: mikel/mail#1097

[phillmv]

@jeremy hey!

Do we need to update anything re: https://github.com/rubysec/ruby-advisory-db/blob/master/gems/mail/OSVDB-131677.yml ? I'm thinking re: the patched or fixed versions.

(Aside from adding better context of course. We could add links, and or move off OSVDB if there's a CVE for it…)

Thanks!

[jeremy]

Hey @phillmv!

Could just bump patched_versions to >= 2.5.5, but the reality is a bit trickier.

Vulnerable:

• mail < 2.5.5 users on Ruby < 2.4.0
• all net/smtp users on Ruby < 2.4.0

Non vulnerable:

• mail >= 2.5.5 users on Ruby < 2.4.0
• all net/smtp users on Ruby >= 2.4.0

Not sure how this best maps to advisories.

[jeremy]

We should split this into two advisories: one for the Mail gem not doing output validation and another for Ruby SMTP allowing CRLF injection. I requested a CVE for the Ruby vuln. @reedloden requested back in 2015 as well, so we may have a dupe or that may apply to the Mail lib only.

[phillmv]

I'm fine with the most basic "your ass is covered" version range, and thank you for confirming.

I approved the PR and added some useful context: 01c549e

If you think it's more accurate to have a 2nd advisory that's fine by me.

[jeremy]

PR for Ruby vuln, pending CVE assignment: #293

[jeremy]

CVE-2015-9096 (Ruby) and CVE-2015-9097 (Mail) assigned. #293 updated.

[jeremy]

#292 and #293 merged, cool to close this up!

[reedloden]

Woot! Thanks!