Amazon Linux 2023 : c-ares, c-ares-devel (ALAS2023-2023-198)

high Nessus Plugin ID 176922

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Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux 2023 host is missing a security update.

Description

It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ALAS2023-2023-198 advisory.

A flaw was found in the c-ares package. The ares_set_sortlist is missing checks about the validity of the input string, which allows a possible arbitrary length stack overflow. This issue may cause a denial of service or a limited impact on confidentiality and integrity. (CVE-2022-4904)

When cross-compiling c-ares and using the autotools build system, CARES_RANDOM_FILE will not be set, as seen when cross compiling aarch64 android. This will downgrade to using rand() as a fallback which could allow an attacker to take advantage of the lack of entropy by not using a CSPRNG. (CVE-2023-31124)

ares_inet_net_pton() is vulnerable to a buffer underflow for certain ipv6 addresses, in particular 0::00:00:00/2 was found to cause an issue. C-ares only uses this function internally for configuration purposes which would require an administrator to configure such an address via ares_set_sortlist().

However, users may externally use ares_inet_net_pton() for other purposes and thus be vulnerable to more severe issues. (CVE-2023-31130)

Insufficient randomness in generation of DNS query IDs

When /dev/urandom or RtlGenRandom() are unavailable, c-ares uses rand() to generate random numbers used for DNS query ids. This is not a CSPRNG, and it is also not seeded by srand() so will generate predictable output.Input from the random number generator is fed into a non-compilant RC4 implementation and may not be as strong as the original RC4 implementation.No attempt is made to look for modern OS-provided CSPRNGs like arc4random() that is widely available. (CVE-2023-31147)

Denial of Service.

Attack Steps:

The target resolver sends a queryThe attacker forges a malformed UDP packet with a length of 0 and returns them to the target resolverThe target resolver erroneously interprets the 0 length as a graceful shutdown of the connection. (this is only valid for TCP connections, UDP is connection-less)Current resolution fails, DoS attack is achieved. (CVE-2023-32067)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Run 'dnf update c-ares --releasever 2023.0.20230607' to update your system.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 176922

File Name: al2023_ALAS2023-2023-198.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Amazon Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 6/8/2023

Updated: 12/11/2024

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9

Temporal Score: 7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2022-4904

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.6

Temporal Score: 7.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:c-ares, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:c-ares-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:c-ares-debugsource, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:c-ares-debuginfo, cpe:/o:amazon:linux:2023

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 6/5/2023

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/20/2023

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2022-4904, CVE-2023-31124, CVE-2023-31130, CVE-2023-31147, CVE-2023-32067

Detections

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