Linux PPPD Has A 17 Year Old Vulnerability That Could Lead To Remote Code Execution

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Security on 6 March 2020 at 06:39 AM EST. 14 Comments
LINUX SECURITY
It turns out the Point-to-Point Protocol Daemon (PPPD) used for dial-up models, DSL, and other point-to-point network setups on Linux has been bugged for the past seventeen years with a buffer overflow vulnerability that could lead to remote code execution at the system level.

Going back to PPPD 2.4.2 in 2003 up through PPPD 2.4.8 as the latest stable release is subject to a buffer overflow in the EAP packet processing code. Due to an incorrect bounds check, there is the possibility of arbitrary code execution within this high profile Linux daemon.
By sending an unsolicited EAP packet to a vulnerable ppp client or server, an unauthenticated remote attacker could cause memory corruption in the pppd process, which may allow for arbitrary code execution.

More details on this PPPD vulnerability via CERT.org.

A new release of PPPD isn't yet available but the fixed bounds check patch is within the PPP Git repository.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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