The GTK version of ettercap uses a global settings file at /tmp/.ettercap_gtk and does not verify ownership of this file. When parsing this file for settings in gtkui_conf_read() (src/interfacesgtk/ec_gtk_conf.c), an unchecked sscanf() call allows a maliciously placed settings file to overflow a statically-sized buffer on the stack.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201405-12 (Ettercap: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Ettercap:
      Ettercap does not handle temporary files securely (CVE-2010-3843).
      A format string flaw in Ettercap could cause a buffer overflow         (CVE-2010-3844).
      A stack-based buffer overflow exists in Ettercap (CVE-2013-0722).
  Impact :

    A remote attacker could entice a user to load a specially crafted       configuration file using Ettercap, possibly resulting in execution of       arbitrary code with the privileges of the process or a Denial of Service       condition.
    A local attacker could perform symlink attacks to overwrite arbitrary       files with the privileges of the user running the application.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

Updated ettercap package fixes security vulnerability :

The GTK version of ettercap uses a global settings file at /tmp/.ettercap_gtk and does not verify ownership of this file. When parsing this file for settings in gtkui_conf_read\(\) (src/interfaces/gtk/ec_gtk_conf.c), an unchecked sscanf\(\) call allows a maliciously placed settings file to overflow a statically-sized buffer on the stack (CVE-2010-3843).

New upstream, and patch for insecure global settings file. Restored RPM_OPT_FLAGS to build. New upstream, and patch for insecure global settings file. New upstream, and patch for insecure global settings file. New upstream, and patch for insecure global settings file.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
74055	GLSA-201405-12 : Ettercap: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	high
66091	Mandriva Linux Security Advisory : ettercap (MDVSA-2013:077)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	high
57867	Fedora 15 : ettercap-0.7.4-3.fc15 (2012-1066)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	low
57866	Fedora 16 : ettercap-0.7.4-3.fc16 (2012-1054)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	low

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2010-3843

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

low

low