Heap Overflow in a Regular Expression Parser in Network Security Services (NSS) may Affect SSL Clients (CVE-2009-2404)

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A heap overflow vulnerability in Network Security Services (NSS):

1. Impact

A heap overflow vulnerability in Network Security Services (NSS) may allow a remote SSL server to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) to SSL client applications or to possibly execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the SSL client application, via a long domain name in the subject's Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate, related to the "cert_TestHostName" function.

Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin and Evolution are examples of vulnerable SSL client applications.

This issue is also described in the following document:

    CVE-2009-2404 at: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2404

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur in the following releases:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 9 without patch 119211-21
• Solaris 10 without patch 119213-20
  
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 8) without patch 119209-21
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 9) without patch 119211-21
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 10) without patch 119213-20
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 without patch 125358-09

x86 Platform

• Solaris 9 without patch 119212-21
• Solaris 10 without patch 119214-20
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 9) without patch 119212-21
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 10) without patch 119214-20
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 without patch 125359-09

Linux Platform

• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 and Sun Java Enterprise System 5 (for RHEL2.1 and RHEL3.0) without patch 142506-02
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 (for RHEL4.0 and RHEL5.0) without patch 121656-20

HP-UX

• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 and Sun Java Enterprise System 5 without patch 124379-11

Windows Platform

• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 without patch 124392-10
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 without patch 125923-09

Note 1: Sun Java Enterprise System is not supported on Solaris 8 x86.

Note 2: To determine if a package or a patch is installed on a system, follow these instructions:

Solaris Platform

To determine if the package SUNWtls is installed, the following command may be used:

    $ /usr/bin/pkginfo -l SUNWtls

Linux Platform

To determine if the package "sun-nss" is installed and the version of the installed package, the following command may be used:

    $ /bin/rpm -q sun-nss

Note: Linux "sun-nss" packages 3.12.2 and earlier are vulnerable to this issue.

HP-UX Platform

To determine if the package "sun-nss" is installed, the following command may be used:

    $ /usr/sbin/swlist sun-nss

To determine which patch level for "sun-nss" is installed, the following command may be used:

    $ /usr/sbin/swlist 124379\*

Windows Platform

To determine if "Sun Java Enterprise System" is installed, look into "Add or Remove Programs" from the "Control Panel" and check if "Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System 2005Q4" or"Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System 5" is listed as being currently installed.

To determine the list of JES patches installed on the system, the following command may be used:

    <JES installation directory>\utils\patch\ListJavaESPatches.exe

Note 3: All systems with NSS versions prior to NSS 3.12.3 are potentially vulnerable to this issue.

Systems with NSS 3.12.3 using the environment variable named "NSS_USE_SHEXP_IN_CERT_NAME" are also potentially vulnerable.

Systems with NSS 3.12.3 NOT using the environment variable named "NSS_USE_SHEXP_IN_CERT_NAME" are NOT vulnerable.

Systems with NSS 3.12.4 (and later versions), wether or not using the environment variable named "NSS_USE_SHEXP_IN_CERT_NAME", are NOT vulnerable.

3. Symptoms

There are no symptoms that would indicate the described issue has been exploited to execute abitrary code. A crafted X.509 certificate which may trigger the vulnerability would contain an unusually long domain name in the Common Name (CN) field.

4. Workaround

To work around the described issue on systems with NSS 3.12.3 only, do not set the "NSS_USE_SHEXP_IN_CERT_NAME" environment variable.

5. Resolution

This issue is addressed in the following releases WITHOUT the environment variable NSS_USE_SHEXP_IN_CERT_NAME set:

SPARC Platform

• Solaris 9 with patch 119211-21 or later
  
• Solaris 10 with patch 119213-20 or later
  
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 8) with patch 119209-21 or later
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 9) with patch 119211-21 or later
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 10) with patch 119213-20 or later
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 with patch 125358-09 or later

x86 Platform

• Solaris 9 with patch 119212-21 or later
• Solaris 10 with patch 119214-20 or later
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 9) with patch 119212-21 or later
• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 (for Solaris 10) with patch 119214-20 or later
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 with patch 125359-09 or later

Linux Platform

• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 and Sun Java Enterprise System 5 (for RHEL2.1 and RHEL3.0) with patch 142506-02 or later
  
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 (for RHEL4.0 and RHEL5.0) with patch 121656-20 or later

HP-UX

• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 and Sun Java Enterprise System 5 with patch 124379-11 or later
  

Windows Platform

• Sun Java Enterprise System 2005Q4 with patch 124392-10 or later
  
• Sun Java Enterprise System 5 with patch 125923-09 or later

For more information on Security Sun Alerts, see Technical Instruction ID 213557.

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