======Format String Vulnerablity in Lynx====== //Larry W. Cashdollar//

Summary: lynx has a format string vulnerability in LYUtils.c line 7995 due to a bad call to syslog(), where the format argument is omitted.

Risk: Low

Version: Lynx compiled from FreeBSD ports collection. Also tested in 2.8.5dev.5.gz

[larryc@harod ~ $] lynx --version
Lynx Version 2.8.4rel.1 (17 Jul 2001)
Built on freebsd4.4 Dec 25 2001 23:04:31

line 7995 in LYUtils.c reads:
syslog (LOG_INFO|LOG_LOCAL5, buf);

The reason this is low priority is the bug can only big triggered if sysloging URL's is enabled.
(./configure --enable-syslog)

The following url triggers the bug:

Results in the following logged to syslog.

Dec 25 23:11:00 vapid lynx[5160]: http://lwc-1077939384134744128:******@vapid.dhs.org/bleh:80

Fix: line 7995: --syslog (LOG_INFO|LOG_LOCAL5, buf); +syslog (LOG_INFO|LOG_LOCAL5,"%s", buf);