Check Point Advisories

Metamail Format String And Buffer Overflow (CVE-2004-0104)

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2004-116
Date Published:	17 Jan 2010
Severity:	Medium
Last Updated:	Sunday 17 January, 2010
Source:
Industry Reference:	CVE-2004-0104
Protection Provided by:	Security Gateway R81, R80, R77, R75
Who is Vulnerable?
Vulnerability Description	Metamail is a system for handling multimedia mail, using the mailcapfile. Metamail reads the mailcap file, which tells Metamail what helper program to call in order to handle a particular type of non-text mail. There exist multiple vulnerabilities in MetaMail that may provide for arbitrary code execution. The vulnerabilities are due to format string or buffer overflow in the email headers or MIME part headers. In case of an attack where code injection is not successful, the Metamail executable will terminate abnormally. In case of an attack where code injection and execution is successful, the behavior of the system is dependent on the nature the injected code. Any code injected into the vulnerable component would execute in the security context of metamail (usually inherited from the MUA, which in most cases runs with the user's credentials).

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 Metamail Format String And Buffer Overflow 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: SMTP Protection Violation.
Attack Information: Metamail format string and buffer overflow