Security flaw Gopher in IE

[FanJ]

Security flaw Gopher in IE:

https://grc.com/x/news.exe?cmd=article&group=grc.security.software&item=62643&utag=

Quoted from http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020605/ap_wo_en_bu/us_microsoft_security_flaw_1

-{ Quote: "
REDMOND, Washington - A security flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser could allow a hacker to take control of a remote computer if its user clicks a link to an outdated Internet protocol, a computer security firm says.
Oy Online Solutions Ltd. of Finland said it notified Microsoft Corp. of the security hole on May 20 but the software giant has yet to produce a software patch to fix the problem, the Toronto Star reported Tuesday.
A Microsoft spokesman who refused to be identified said Tuesday that the company is "moving forward on the investigation with all due speed" and will take the action that best serves its customers.
The problem concerns Gopher, an Internet protocol that predates the World Wide Web with pages like Web pages except that they are unable to store audio and video content.
Although Gopher is considered an outdated format for Internet content, it is still supported by Internet Explorer and most other browsers.
According to Oy Online, a hacker could take over a user's computer simply by having the user click on a link to a "hostile Gopher site." That one click would install and run any program the hacker chose on the victim's computer, and the victim might never know." }-

Read more:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020605/ap_wo_en_bu/us_microsoft_security_flaw_1


Discussed at the DSLR-security-forum:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,3473369~root=security,1~mode=flat

[FanJ]

The site where it was original mentioned:

http://www.solutions.fi/index.cgi/news_2002_06_05?lang=fi

See also:

http://www.nullium.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=53&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Quoted from that last site:

-{ Quote: "Be aware that all versions of Internet explorer are vulnerable.
Microsoft Internet Explorer has a built-in gopher client. Gopher pages can be accessed via URLs starting with "gopher://". The part of code in IE which parses gopher replies contains an exploitable buffer overflow bug. A malicious server may be used to run arbitrary code on an IE user's system.



Internet Explorer users can protect themselves from the flaw by disabling the gopher protocol. Barely any gopher servers exist on the Internet today, so this is unlikely to cause problems. If needed, a gopher client or some other web browser can be used to access the gopherspace.

An easy way to disable processing and displaying gopher pages is to define a non-functional gopher proxy in Internet Options. Select Tools -> Internet options -> Connections. Click on "LAN settings". Check "Use a proxy server for your LAN". Click on "Advanced...". Here you can define proxy servers to be used with different protocols. Go to the Gopher text field and enter "localhost", and "1" in the port text field. This will stop Internet Explorer from fetching any gopher documents.

To see weather you vulnerable or not check this test link gopher://www.solutions.fi:7000/0 it only displays text nothing serious, if you see text and run Internet Explorer that means you're vulnerable


Note: Patch is in progress and information was grabbed from here http://www.solutions.fi/ *
" }-

[Checkout]

IE has a proxy setting for Gopher. *Wouldn't using this be a simple workaround? * ???

[FanJ]

Hi Checkout,

Yes, that was written in that part that I quoted.
Again:

-begin quote-

An easy way to disable processing and displaying gopher pages is to define a non-functional gopher proxy in Internet Options. Select Tools -> Internet options -> Connections. Click on "LAN settings". Check "Use a proxy server for your LAN". Click on "Advanced...". Here you can define proxy servers to be used with different protocols. Go to the Gopher text field and enter "localhost", and "1" in the port text field. This will stop Internet Explorer from fetching any gopher documents. *

-end quote-

I tried that yesterday, but somehow it didn't work for me, I still got that text-page. I don't know why, and whether I did something wrong....

[Checkout]

-{ Quote: "Yes, that was written in that part that I quoted.
Again:

-begin quote-

An easy way to disable processing and displaying gopher pages is to define a non-functional gopher proxy in Internet Options. Select Tools -> Internet options -> Connections. Click on "LAN settings". Check "Use a proxy server for your LAN". Click on "Advanced...". Here you can define proxy servers to be used with different protocols. Go to the Gopher text field and enter "localhost", and "1" in the port text field. This will stop Internet Explorer from fetching any gopher documents. *

-end quote-

I tried that yesterday, but somehow it didn't work for me, I still got that text-page. I don't know why, and whether I did something wrong...." }-
FanJ, are you suggesting I actually read what you've written? * ;D

Duh! *I must try harder!

[spy1]

On mine (WinMe, that is), just putting "<local>" in the HTTP column results in the greying out of all the other fields - of course, it really doesn't matter here since I'm not ON a LAN. Pete

[Prince_Serendip]

Thanks, FanJ! I just finished applying your solution (I do work from a LAN). When I tried the test link I got a "This Page Cannot Be Displayed" message. Seems appropriate. Also, -{ Quote: "I tried that yesterday, but somehow it didn't work for me, I still got that text-page. I don't know why, and whether I did something wrong.... " }- It probably did not work because you didn't turn off Internet Explorer and then put it back on so it recognizes the changes you made. I did this, then came back here and used the link. Did I do it right? I will pass this along to my PC Club. ;D

[Bouch]

This may be too simplistic. You tell me. Why can't a guy just write a firewall rule for IE denying any outbound TCP to port 70? (at least until M$ comes out with a patch)

Ok, after doing a little more reading, I'll answer my own question:
-{ Quote: "Can I get protected by blocking all gopher traffic (to TCP port 70) by a firewall rule?
No, because the malicious gopher server could be listening on any TCP port, even in the web port (80). " }-
Oh well, it seemed reasonable at the time. I'll leave the post just in case it seems reasonable to somebody else.

[FanJ]

See:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-027.asp

[Paul Wilders]

Free Gopher Root Vulnerability Fix available here:

www.pivx.com/gopher_smoker.html (http://www.pivx.com/gopher_smoker.html)

Note: not tested by us - Forum Admin

regards.

paul

[snowman]

****Gopher Smoker v0.6
OS: Win95, 98, 2000, XP
Program Info: gopher.info
Size: 257k


I notice that winME is not mentioned. WinME does has file protection so I am un-certain if this would be a problem with the "fix" or not...my guess is that it would not....but some of the more knowledgable here would better be the judge.

snowman

[Paul Wilders]

snowman,

the app is ME compatible. As stated: didn't test it though.

regards.

paul

[snowman]

Paul.......thanking ya.......may give it a test drive later..not now...during the business week

snowman

P.S

ot: Paul there is a 66' corvette...327...that is up for sale in my area...guy asking $28K.....I just had to "inquire" and take it for a spin.....oooooooooooooh man!!! of course the price is out of my reach....

[Geoff Shively]

Hey all,
Thanks for supporting the PivX fix- I really appreciate it. I was alerted to this site after I saw a surge of hits from it. - thought I would drop in.

We just did a press release that you might be aware of, and another this am. http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/pr-2002/june/mainpr1298.htm

WARNING: Dont use the microsoft work around, go to our site and and see why. LOL- classic microsoft- they release a fix that breaks their own software! http://www.pivx.com/gsmoker.html (see bottom of page how-to test condition)


Thank You,

Geoff Shively, CTO
PivX Solutions, LLC

Contact & Info:
http://www.PivX.com

[spy1]

Geoff - welcome to the forum and thanks for the fix.

Applied it yesterday as soon as I read about it here and haven't noticed any adverse effects from it (running WinME here - if there had been adverse effects, it probably would have been hard to tell! <g> ) . Pete

[snowy]

Geoff

thank you for supplieing the "fix"..much appreciated...I find a couple of your other products very interesting.



Spy 1

Pete thanks for posting that you installed the fix without problems.....during the business week I need to be careful with installs for work related reasons.
snowy(snowman)

[Marianna]

Thanks Pete,

I also applied the patch on WinMe - no problems here :D

WMP plays now again ;D

[spy1]

Single-click security is one of my favorite things! :) Pete

[FanJ]

Somehow the fix from PivX doesn't work for me.
Using PivXGopher-Smoker v0.6

I install that fix, it says it is installed.

I go from this thread to:
http://www.nullium.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=53&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

I do the test at that site.
Then I still get that page shown that tells you:

If you see this document, then you are using gopher. If this appears in your Internet Explorer, then you're likely to be vulnerable to the gopher buffer overflow bug. etc.

I then go again to my PivXGopher-Smoker v0.6, check there and what do I see:
patch NOT installed

Windows 98SE, Dutch; IE5.5
Am I doing something wrong?

[Marianna]

Hi Jan,

I applied the "fix/patch" to WinMe and Win98 and no problems at all. Having IE 5.5 SP2.

Just a thought, I saw you have IE 5.5 wouldn't it be better to update to IE 5.5 SP2 ?? Maybe this could be the reason?? Could give it a try ;)

[FanJ]

Hi Marianna,

Yes, I have SP2; I should have mentioned that, sorry.

IE 5.50.4807.2300
SP2;
Q316059
Q319182
q313829
Q321232

[Marianna]

Jan,

I just looked in my win98 computer - IE 5.5 SP2 - I have 2 more security patches in there:

Q 312461 -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q312461

Q 313675 -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q313675

[FanJ]

Thanks very much Marianna !!! :)

I'm going to have a look there !
Did it happen again that we with non-English versions of Windows don't get updates ? Grrr
Or maybe it was my own fault....

PS: I repaired the links in your posting to make them more easy clickable.

[FanJ]

I have this:

IE 5.50.4807.2300
SP2;
Q316059
Q319182
q313829
Q321232

Marianna has also these:

Q 312461 -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q312461

Q 313675 -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q313675



Q312461
MS01-055
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-051.asp
MS02-005: February 11, 2002, Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (Q316059)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316059

From that last site quoted:

-{ Quote: "
The "February 11, 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer" has been superseded by the "May 15, 2002, Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer". For additional information about how to obtain this patch, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q321232 MS02-023: May 15, 2002, Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer

SUMMARY
The "February 11, 2002, Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer" includes updates for the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:
Q286043 MS01-051: Patch Available for Telnet Logging Vulnerability
Q306121 MS01-051: Malformed "Dotless" IP Address Can Cause a Web Page to Be Handled in the Intranet Zone
Q308414 MS01-051: Patch Available for HTTP Request Encoding Vulnerability
Q312461 MS01-055: Internet Explorer Cookie Data Can Be Exposed or Altered Through Script Injection
Q313675 MS01-058: File Vulnerability Patch for Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Explorer 6
Q317726 MS02-005: Patch Is Available for the GetObject() Scripting Function Vulnerability
Q317727 MS02-005: Patch Is Available for the Application Invocation via Content-Type Field Vulnerability
Q317729 MS02-005: Patch Is Available for a New Variant of the "Frame Domain Verification" Vulnerability
Q317731 MS02-005: Patch Is Available for the Buffer Overrun in HTML Directive Vulnerability
Q317742 MS02-005: Patch Is Available for the Script Execution Vulnerability
Q317745 MS02-005: Patch is Available for the File Download Dialog Box Spoofing Vulnerability
" }-

My conclusion:
Since I have Q321232, I also have Q312461 and Q313675

Am I right with my conclusion?

[Marianna]

Hi Jan,

you did a heck of a job :D

Yes, you are right with your conclusion!

Now back to "your" problem......did you "undo" the workaround?? I did before I applied the "fix". I don't know whether it makes a difference or not, I'm on cable.

Well, I'll keep an eye on it - I didn't hear yet any problems on our forum!

Thanks for "healing" my links - what did I do wrong?? I copied\pasted the links.

[FanJ]

Thanks Marianna ;)

About those links:
Sometimes when you post a link and after that you go with your mouse over it, only a part of the link will be red: that is clickable. To make the whole link clickable put (url) just before it and (/url) just behind; replace ( with [ and ) with ]
Another way of doing it is:
when you post a message or a reply, look at that row of pictures right above that row with all these smilies. When you click on the second picture it gives you those same url-tags, and then place your url between them.
If you want to see how it looks like: do as if you want to modify that posting with the urls in it and see how it looks like.
Hihi, I hope you understand what I was writing :D

Yep, back to my Gopher problem.
Vaguelly I remember a posting at DSLR-security about ADSL-connection with respect to the Gopher-issue (the kind of connection I am on).

[Marianna]

Hi Jan,

thanks for the explanation :D

I found the link regarding Gopher in DLSR -

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,3473369~root=security,1~mode=flat

If I got the link correct inserted, I "got it" :D

[FanJ]

Hi Marianna,

Yes, the link works fine :) Thanks !
I will have a look.....

[FanJ]

Just got this warning from Kaspersky:

[hr]

Internet Explorer Exposed By Gopher Client Vulnerability
A buffer overflow in Microsoft Internet Explorer's Gopher client can be
caused by an attack from a link on a specially designed Web page or
through a link in e-mail. Attackers exploiting this vulnerability can
execute code on systems running Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.

Microsoft knows of the problem but as of yet no software solution is
available. In the meantime, Oy Online Solutions, the Finnish company
that exposed this vulnerability suggests a workaround, which is outline
below.

Although the Gopher protocol so its popularity wane over the years, it
is supported by recent versions of Internet Explorer. Developed in the
early 1990s by the University of Minnesota (The Gophers), the Gopher
protocol allows users to connect to directories and files available on
Gopher servers. Like HTTP, Gopher pages can be accessed by starting the
desired address with Gopher://.

Details of the buffer overflow are not available. Microsoft is now
working on a fix.

Prevention Stept To Take: Oy Online Solutions suggests that users of
Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6 disable the Gopher protocol within the
browser. One solution is to create a Gopher proxy in Internet Options
located under Tools on the status bar.

- From Tools > Internet Options > Connections, select LAN Settings.
- Check "Use a proxy server for your LAN."
- Click Advanced and define the Gopher text field as localhost and type
1 in the port text field.
- Click OK to save and exit.

For modem users not on a LAN, the Gopher proxy settings
are located under Tools > Internet Options > Connections, then under
Dialup Settings select Settings.

Click on the following url to read the Microsoft Security Bulletin:
http://clickthru.online.com/Click?q=3b-XhmVINdhJzIpE2cFWZZD8pcUcsRR

[Marianna]

Jan,

"you just got" the Kapersky warning??

Have a look here:

http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/pr-2002/june/mainpr1298.htm

is dated June 11th, 2002 .

Hope this helps :)

[Marianna]

Just got this from Microsoft in an e-mail:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Unchecked Buffer in Gopher Protocol Handler Can Run Code
of Attacker's Choice (Q323889)
Released: 11 June 2002
Revised: 14 June 2002 (version 2.0)
Software: Internet Explorer, Proxy Server, Internet Security and
Acceleration Server
Impact: Run Code of Attacker's Choice
Max Risk: Critical
Bulletin: MS02-027

Microsoft encourages customers to review the Security Bulletin at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-027.asp.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Reason for Revision:
====================
On June 11, 2002, Microsoft released the original version of this
bulletin. In it, we detailed a work-around procedure that customers
could implement to protect themselves against a publicly disclosed
vulnerability. An updated version of this bulletin was rereleased
on June 14, 2002 to announce the availability of patches for
Proxy Server 2.0 and ISA Server 2000 and to advise customers that
the work-around procedure is no longer needed on those platforms.
Patches for IE are forthcoming and this bulletin will be
re-released to announce their availability.

Issue:
======
This is a work-around bulletin that details steps customers can
take to protect themselves against a publicly disclosed
vulnerability until patches are available.

The Gopher protocol is a legacy protocol that provides for the
transfer of text-based information across the Internet.
Information on Gopher servers is hierarchically presented using a
menu system, and multiple Gopher servers can be linked together to
form a collective "Gopherspace".

There is an unchecked buffer in a piece of code which handles the
response from Gopher servers. This code is used independently in
IE, ISA, and Proxy Server. A security vulnerability results
because it is possible for an attacker to attempt to exploit this
flaw by mounting a buffer overrun attack through a specially
crafted server response. The attacker could seek to exploit the
vulnerability by crafting a web page that contacted a server
under the attacker's control. The attacker could then either post
this page on a web site or send it as an HTML email. When the page
was displayed and the server's response received and processed,
the attack would be carried out.

A successful attack requires that the attacker be able to send
information to the intended target using the Gopher protocol.
Anything which inhibited Gopher connectivity could protect against
attempts to exploit this vulnerability. In the case of IE, the
code would be run in the user's context. As a result, any
limitations on the user would apply to the attacker's code
as well.


Mitigating Factors:
====================
- A successful attack requires that the attacker's server be
able to deliver information to the target using the Gopher
protocol. Customers who block Gopher at the perimeter would be
protected against attempts to exploit this vulnerability across
the Internet.

- In the case of IE, code would run in the security context of
the user. As a result, any limitations on the user's ability
would also restrict the actions an attacker's code could take.

- A successful attack against ISA and Proxy servers would
require that the malicious response be received by the web
proxy service. In practical terms, this means that a proxy
client would have to submit the initial request through the
proxy server.

Risk Rating:
============
- Internet systems: Critical
- Intranet systems: Critical
- Client systems: Critical

Patch Availability:
===================
- A patch is currently under development to fix this
vulnerability. Please read the Security Bulletin at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms02-027.asp
for workaround information while patches are developed.

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS
PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS
ALL
WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
IN NO EVENT
SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL,
LOSS OF
BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR
ITS
SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME
STATES DO
NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL
OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.

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