RubyGnome2 0.16.0

Format String Vulnerability In Gtk::MessageDialog

http://em386.blogspot.com


Ruby Gnome2 is a project to provide GTK2 bindings to ruby scripts so you can 
write GUI code in less time. There is a format string vulnerability in 
Gtk::MessageDialog(). This design flaw does not

allow for a user generated string to be safely sent to this function.


It is really just an API to the GTK2 function gtk_message_dialog_new() 
Ruby/Gnome2 does not properly use a format specifier for the message

variable in  ruby-gnome2-all-0.16.0/gtk/src/rbgtkmessagedialog.c as requested 
by the Gtk man page for this function.


...

w = gtk_message_dialog_new(NIL_P(parent) ? NULL : GTK_WINDOW(RVAL2GOBJ(parent)),

                             RVAL2GFLAGS(flags, GTK_TYPE_DIALOG_FLAGS),

                             RVAL2GENUM(type, GTK_TYPE_MESSAGE_TYPE),

                             RVAL2GENUM(buttons, GTK_TYPE_BUTTONS_TYPE),

                             (const gchar*)(NIL_P(message) ? "": 
RVAL2CSTR(message)));

...


The GTK2 documentation:

http://www.gtk.org/api/2.6/gtk/GtkMessageDialog.html#gtk-message-dialog-new

states that message should be a 'printf style format string' and after that 
should be arguments to message. However calling messagedialog from your ruby 
script does not support this.


The vulnerability can be exploited by sending a specially crafted string to the 
function. An example ruby program is provided as a POC.


...

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# ruby rubber.rb %x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x.%x


require 'libglade2'


my_string = ARGV[0]


dialog = Gtk::MessageDialog.new(@main_app_window, Gtk::Dialog::MODAL, 

                                      Gtk::MessageDialog::INFO, 

                                      Gtk::MessageDialog::BUTTONS_CLOSE,

                                      "%s - Was your string!" % my_string)

      dialog.run

      dialog.destroy

...


A temporary work around for this vulnerability is using the markup member:


dialog.markup = "#{my_string} - Was your string!"


Or 


my_string = "my_string = my_string.gsub(/%/, "%%")


I have found a few ruby/gnome2 apps out there who use the API in this unsafe 
manner. 


Fixed Nov 27th 2007 in Ruby/Gnome2 SVN

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