Check Point Advisories

CVS Argumentx Command Double Free (CVE-2004-0416)

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2004-152
Date Published:	15 Oct 2009
Severity:	High
Last Updated:	Thursday 15 October, 2009
Source:
Industry Reference:	CVE-2004-0416
Protection Provided by:	Security Gateway R81, R80, R77, R75
Who is Vulnerable?
Vulnerability Description	Concurrent Versions System (CVS) is an open-source network-transparent version control system. CVS itself does not listen for, or accept network connections. To implement remote repository access, it can be installed as an inetd service, or invoked with the rsh/ssh command. Data between the server and client is then piped to standard in/out file handles. When CVS is invoked by inetd, it will be passed a "pserver" or a "kserver" command line argument, which indicates the utilization of a built-in password authentication or Kerberos authentication, respectively. When accessed by rsh/ssh, the user authentication is done through the rsh/ssh log-in, CVS will then be invoked as "cvs server". In all cases, the code steps into the same service function after authentication has succeeded. A vulnerability exists in the way CVS handles certain client requests. Exploitation of this vulnerability can possibly lead to remote code execution on the vulnerable CVS server. Usually a successful attack case, through any remote CVS connection method, can compromise the vulnerable system without any change in its behaviour; the service will remain functioning after an attack. However, in some circumstances, the vulnerable CVS server will not terminate after the attacker disconnects and will consume 100% of the CPU due to an endless loop in a memory management function. If this vulnerability is triggered many times, a denial of service condition by CPU exhaustion may occur due to many CVS processes caught in an infinite loop. In the case of code execution, the actual behaviour is dependant on the code injected. Any of the remote CVS methods are vulnerable.

Protection Overview

This protection will detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability

In order for the protection to be activated, update your Security Gateway product to the latest IPS update. For information on how to update IPS, go to SBP-2006-05, click on Protection tab and select the version of your choice.

Security Gateway R80 / R77 / R75

In the IPS tab, click Protections and find the CVS Argumentx Command Double Free protection using the Search tool and Edit the protection's settings.
Install policy on all Security Gateways.

This protection's log will contain the following information:

Attack Name: Application Servers Protection Violation.
Attack Information: CVS Argumentx command double free