Friday, February 14, 2025
HomeBuffer over flowCritical Vulnerability in ppp Daemon Let Hackers Remotely Exploit the Linux Systems...

Critical Vulnerability in ppp Daemon Let Hackers Remotely Exploit the Linux Systems & Gain Root Access

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

A critical Buffer overflow vulnerability discovered in the pppD ( Point to Point Protocol Daemon) Let remote attackers exploit the Linux systems remotely and gain the root-level privileges.

pppD ( Point to Point Protocol Daemon) often used to manage the network connections in Unix based operating systems, also it used to manage broadband connections such as DSL, if (PPPoE) or (PPPoA) is used.

A researcher found this critical vulnerability that resides in the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) packet processing in the Point-to-Point Protocol Daemon (pppd).

An unauthenticated remote attacker may be able to cause a stack buffer overflow by exploiting this vulnerability. It may allow attackers to remotely taking over the code execution of a process and perform arbitrary code execution on the target system. 

 Ilja Van Sprundel has discovered this vulnerability that can be tracked as CVE-2020-8597 with a 9.3 CVE score. GBHackers found no exploit code at this moment in online for this vulnerability.

Following Linux distribution has been confirmed this vulnerability that running with pppd (Point to Point Protocol Daemon) versions 2.4.2 through 2.4.8.

Also, the following vendors are issued an update about the remote pppD remote code execution vulnerability,

Root Cause of the pppD Vulnerability

The buffer overflow vulnerability affected several Linux distribution due to an error invalidating the size of the input before copying the supplied data into memory. 

During the input size validation, if the validation of the data size is incorrect, it leads to Copy the arbitrary data into memory and causes memory corruption that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code remotely.

According to the Vulnerability report “The vulnerability is in the logic of the eap parsing code that causes the eap_input() function to not check if EAP has been negotiated during the Line Control Protocol (LCP) phase.”

“This allows an unauthenticated attacker to send an EAP packet even if ppp refused the authentication negotiation due to lack of support for EAP or due to mismatch of an agreed pre-shared passphrase in the LCP phase. The vulnerable pppd code in eap_input will still process the EAP packet and trigger the stack buffer overflow. “

Since the data is unverified and the size is unknown, the vulnerability corrupt the memory of the target system.

Also, the PPP runs with high privileges and works in conjunction with kernel drivers to let attackers gain root-level privileges. by potentially execute arbitrary code with system.

Follow us on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook for Daily cyber security & hacking news updates.

Balaji
Balaji
BALAJI is an Ex-Security Researcher (Threat Research Labs) at Comodo Cybersecurity. Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder - Cyber Security News & GBHackers On Security.

Latest articles

Fake BSOD Attack Launched via Malicious Python Script

A peculiar malicious Python script has surfaced, employing an unusual and amusing anti-analysis trick...

SocGholish Malware Dropped from Hacked Web Pages using Weaponized ZIP Files

A recent wave of cyberattacks leveraging the SocGholish malware framework has been observed using...

Lazarus Group Targets Developers Worldwide with New Malware Tactic

North Korea's Lazarus Group, a state-sponsored cybercriminal organization, has launched a sophisticated global campaign...

North Korean IT Workers Penetrate Global Firms to Install System Backdoors

In a concerning escalation of cyber threats, North Korean IT operatives have infiltrated global...

Supply Chain Attack Prevention

Free Webinar - Supply Chain Attack Prevention

Recent attacks like Polyfill[.]io show how compromised third-party components become backdoors for hackers. PCI DSS 4.0’s Requirement 6.4.3 mandates stricter browser script controls, while Requirement 12.8 focuses on securing third-party providers.

Join Vivekanand Gopalan (VP of Products – Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface) as they break down these compliance requirements and share strategies to protect your applications from supply chain attacks.

Discussion points

Meeting PCI DSS 4.0 mandates.
Blocking malicious components and unauthorized JavaScript execution.
PIdentifying attack surfaces from third-party dependencies.
Preventing man-in-the-browser attacks with proactive monitoring.

More like this

REF7707 Hackers Target Windows & Linux Systems with FINALDRAFT Malware

Elastic Security Labs has uncovered a sophisticated cyber-espionage campaign, tracked as REF7707, targeting entities...

NVIDIA Container Toolkit Vulnerable to Code Execution Attacks

NVIDIA has issued a critical security update to address a high-severity vulnerability discovered in...

Apache Fineract SQL Injection Vulnerability Allows Malicious Data Injection

The Apache Software Foundation has disclosed a critical SQL injection vulnerability in its widely...