fetchmail: Buffer Overflow

1. Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Advisory Reference	GLSA 200507-21 / fetchmail
Release Date	July 25, 2005
Latest Revision	July 25, 2005: 01
Impact	normal
Exploitable	remote

Package	Vulnerable versions	Unaffected versions	Architecture(s)
net-mail/fetchmail	< 6.2.5.2	>= 6.2.5.2	All supported architectures

Related bugreports: #99865

Synopsis

fetchmail is susceptible to a buffer overflow resulting in a Denial of Service or arbitrary code execution.

2. Impact Information

Background

fetchmail is a utility that retrieves and forwards mail from remote systems using IMAP, POP, and other protocols.

Description

fetchmail does not properly validate UIDs coming from a POP3 mail server. The UID is placed in a fixed length buffer on the stack, which can be overflown.

Impact

Very long UIDs returned from a malicious or compromised POP3 server can cause fetchmail to crash, resulting in a Denial of Service, or allow arbitrary code to be placed on the stack.

3. Resolution Information

Workaround

There are no known workarounds at this time.

Resolution

All fetchmail users should upgrade to the latest version:

Code Listing 3.1: Resolution

# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-mail/fetchmail-6.2.5.2"

4. References

Updated July 25, 2005

Summary: This is a Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

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