Re: Registration Weakness in Linux Kernel's Binary formats

[Chase Venters <chase.venters@clientec.com>]

On Tue, 3 Oct 2006, SHELLCODE Security Research wrote:

> Hello,
> The present document aims to demonstrate a design weakness found in the
> handling of simply
> linked   lists   used   to   register   binary   formats   handled   by
> Linux   kernel,   and   affects   all   the   kernel families
> (2.0/2.2/2.4/2.6), allowing the insertion of infection modules in
> kernel­ space that can be used by malicious users to create infection
> tools, for example rootkits.

So the problem you find is that newly registered binfmts are inserted into 
the front of the binfmt list instead of the rear, and this means that a 
binfmt handler can slip in at runtime at run quietly before any other 
handler?

I'm not sure I see this as a real problem. If you can load a module into 
kernel space and access arbitrary symbols (not to mention run in ring 0) I 
think you can do a lot more than just hide out on the binfmt list.

Am I missing something?

> POC, details and proposed solution at:
> English version: http://www.shellcode.com.ar/docz/binfmt-en.pdf
> Spanish version: http://www.shellcode.com.ar/docz/binfmt-es.pdf
>
> regards,
> --
> SHELLCODE Security Research TEAM
> GoodFellas@shellcode.com.ar
> http://www.shellcode.com.ar

Thanks,
Chase