angler-fishThe Vulnerability History Project

CVE-2002-1593

There is a module that handles remote Web content authoring operations. This module was looking for versioning hooks, which are versions of the content using a pointer. This pointer was not being checked for its existence. Therefore a null pointer could attempted to be used and would cause the system to crash. The crash of the system would cause a denial of service issue.


There was a coding mistake made that caused this vulnerability. It seemed to be a simple missed check for a null pointer. There was a general error check when getting the value that the pointer held, but it was not being checked if the pointer existed in the first place. It was just assumed that the pointer existed. Maintainability-wise, this code was fixed in the non backwards compatabile Apache release. So there was never a work around for this bug. This no longer needs to specifically be worried about unless something is using Apache <2.0.42
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CVE: CVE-2002-1593
CWE: 476
ipc:
  note: 
  answer: 
  question: |
    Did the feature that this vulnerability affected use inter-process
    communication? IPC includes OS signals, pipes, stdin/stdout, message
    passing, and clipboard. Writing to files that another program in this
    software system reads is another form of IPC.

    Answer should be boolean. Explain your answer
bugs: []
i18n:
  note: 
  answer: 
  instructions: |
    Was the feature impacted by this vulnerability about internationalization
    (i18n)? An internationalization feature is one that enables people from all
    over the world to use the system. This includes translations, locales,
    typography, unicode, or various other features.

    Answer should be boolean. Write a note about how you came to the conclusions
    you did.
repo: 
vccs:
- note: |-
    This is when the vulnerability was introduced there was no check

    if the vsn_hooks pointer was null. It was assumed that get_option value

    associated with the vsn_hooks existed and if vsn_hooks was null it would

    error out. That is not the case if this vulnerability exists.


    Formerly 8b00d096a6218d883a4ab69e546bb89f3f8c6290 before HTTPD rewrote Git history.
  commit: b30a67812fd44d75f28d737e937195658075dc45
fixes:
- note: |-
    There was a null pointer check added to stop this vulnerability.

    Formerly 618f31fcd3ab951204eeb98661c37ed1e765e316 before HTTPD rewrote Git history.
  commit: 41b61ff59f8e667188055382036da1417a7e002b
bounty:
  amt: 
  url: 
  announced: 
lessons:
  yagni:
    note: 
    applies: false
  question: |
    Are there any common lessons we have learned from class that apply to this
    vulnerability? In other words, could this vulnerability serve as an example
    of one of those lessons?

    Leave "applies" blank or put false if you did not see that lesson (you do
    not need to put a reason). Put "true" if you feel the lesson applies and put
    a quick explanation of how it applies.

    Don't feel the need to claim that ALL of these apply, but it's pretty likely
    that one or two of them apply.

    If you think of another lesson we covered in class that applies here, feel
    free to give it a small name and add one in the same format as these.
  serial_killer:
    note: 
    applies: false
  complex_inputs:
    note: 
    applies: false
  distrust_input:
    note: |
      It's not specifically user input to not trust but it's closer to
      distrustful decomposition. The pointer that has been passed, can not
      be trusted that it is not NULL. The check for it being NULL needs to be
      present.
    applies: true
  least_privilege:
    note: 
    applies: false
  native_wrappers:
    note: 
    applies: false
  defense_in_depth:
    note: 
    applies: false
  secure_by_default:
    note: 
    applies: false
  environment_variables:
    note: 
    applies: false
  security_by_obscurity:
    note: 
    applies: false
  frameworks_are_optional:
    note: 
    applies: false
reviews: []
upvotes: 3
CWE_note: 
mistakes:
  answer: |
    There was a coding mistake made that caused this vulnerability. It
    seemed to be a simple missed check for a null pointer. There was a general
    error check when getting the value that the pointer held, but it was not
    being checked if the pointer existed in the first place. It was just assumed
    that the pointer existed. Maintainability-wise, this code was fixed in the
    non backwards compatabile Apache release. So there was never a work around
    for this bug. This no longer needs to specifically be worried about unless
    something is using Apache <2.0.42
  question: |
    In your opinion, after all of this research, what mistakes were made that
    led to this vulnerability? Coding mistakes? Design mistakes?
    Maintainability? Requirements? Miscommunications?

    Look at the CWE entry for this vulnerability and examine the mitigations
    they have written there. Are they doing those? Does the fix look proper?

    Use those questions to inspire your answer. Don't feel obligated to answer
    every one. Write a thoughtful entry here that those ing the software
    engineering industry would find interesting.
nickname: 
reported: 
announced: '2002-09-25'
published: 
subsystem:
  name: dav
  answer: |
    This mistake was made in a module for WebDAV capabilities, specifically for
    the deltaV options.
  question: |
    What subsystems was the mistake in?

    Look at the path of the source code files code that were fixed to get
    directory names. Look at comments in the code. Look at the bug reports how
    the bug report was tagged.
discovered:
  date: '2002-09-25'
  answer: Ryan Bloom (from apache)
  google: false
  contest: false
  question: |
    How was this vulnerability discovered?

    Go to the bug report and read the conversation to find out how this was
    originally found. Answer in longform below in "answer", fill in the date in
    YYYY-MM-DD, and then determine if the vulnerability was found by a Google
    employee (you can tell from their email address). If it's clear that the
    vulenrability was discovered by a contest, fill in the name there.

    The "automated" flag can be true, false, or nil.
    The "google" flag can be true, false, or nil.

    If there is no evidence as to how this vulnerability was found, then you may
    leave this part blank.
  automated: false
description: |
  There is a module that handles remote Web content authoring
  operations. This module was looking for versioning hooks, which are versions
  of the content using a pointer.
  This pointer was not being checked for its existence. Therefore a null pointer
  could attempted to be used and would cause the system to crash. The crash of
  the system would cause a denial of service issue.
unit_tested:
  fix: false
  code: true
  answer: |
    There are unit tests involved for this functionality. However, it
    did not test for null pointers, which would have been unexpected.
  question: |
    Were automated unit tests involved in this vulnerability?
    Was the original code unit tested, or not unit tested? Did the fix involve
    improving the automated tests?

    For the "code" answer below, look not only at the fix but the surrounding
    code near the fix and determine if and was there were unit tests involved
    for this module.

    For the "fix" answer below, check if the fix for the vulnerability involves
    adding or improving an automated test to ensure this doesn't happen again.
specification:
  answer: 
  answer_note: 
  instructions: |
    Is there mention of a violation of a specification? For example,
    an RFC specification, a protocol specification, or a requirements
    specification.

    Be sure to check all artifacts for this: bug report, security
    advisory, commit message, etc.

    The answer field should be boolean. In answer_note, please explain
    why you come to that conclusion.
curation_level: 1
CWE_instructions: |
  Please go to cwe.mitre.org and find the most specific, appropriate CWE entry
  that describes your vulnerability. (Tip: this may not be a good one to start
  with - spend time understanding this vulnerability before making your choice!)
autodiscoverable:
  answer: 
  answer_note: 
  instructions: |
    Is it plausible that a fully automated tool could have discovered
    this? These are tools that require little knowledge of the domain,
     e.g. automatic static analysis, compiler warnings, fuzzers.

    Examples for true answers: SQL injection, XSS, buffer overflow

    Examples for false: RFC violations, permissions issues, anything
    that requires the tool to be "aware" of the project's
    domain-specific requirements.

    The answer field should be boolean. In answer_note, please explain
    why you come to that conclusion.
yaml_instructions: 
bounty_instructions: |
  If you came across any indications that a bounty was paid out for this
  vulnerability, fill it out here. Or correct it if the information already here
  was wrong. Otherwise, leave it blank.
interesting_commits:
  commits:
  - note: 
    commit: 
  - note: 
    commit: 
  question: |
    Are there any interesting commits between your VCC(s) and fix(es)?

    Write a brief (under 100 words) description of why you think this commit was
    interesting in light of the lessons learned from this vulnerability. Any
    emerging themes?

    There were no interesting commits. It was found that the version hook
    was trying to be accessed without actually being checked if version hook
    existed.
curated_instructions: |
  If you are manually editing this file, then you are "curasting" it. Set the
  entry below to "true" as soon as you start. This will enable additional
  integrity checks on this file to make sure you fill everything out properly.
  If you are a student, we cannot accept your work as finished unless curated is
  set to true.
upvotes_instructions: |
  For the first round, ignore this upvotes number.

  For the second round of reviewing, you will be giving a certain amount of
  upvotes to each vulnerability you see. Your peers will tell you how
  interesting they think this vulnerability is, and you'll add that to the
  upvotes score on your branch.
nickname_instructions: |
  A catchy name for this vulnerability that would draw attention it. If the
  report mentions a nickname, use that. Must be under 30 characters.
  Optional.
reported_instructions: 
announced_instructions: |
  Was there a date that this vulnerability was announced to the world? You can
  find this in changelogs, blogs, bug reports, or perhaps the CVE date. A good
  source for this is Chrome's Stable Release Channel
  (https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/).
  Please enter your date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
fixes_vcc_instructions: |
  Please put the commit hash in "commit" below (see my example in
  CVE-2011-3092.yml). Fixes and VCCs follow the same format.
published_instructions: 
description_instructions: |
  You can get an initial description from the CVE entry on cve.mitre.org. These
  descriptions are a fine start, but they can be kind of jargony.

  Rewrite this description in your own words. Make it interesting and easy to
  read to anyone with some programming experience. We can always pull up the NVD
  description later to get more technical.

  Try to still be specific in your description, but remove Chromium-specific
  stuff. Remove references to versions, specific filenames, and other jargon
  that outsiders to Chromium would not understand. Technology like "regular
  expressions" is fine, and security phrases like "invalid write" are fine to
  keep too.

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