bash-shellshock wrapper

This is a small wrapper around /bin/bash that refuses to start bash if any environment variables start with '('. It can also be run in a log-only mode and a mode that strips these 'bad' environment variables.

You can install this as a temporary workaround if you don't fully trust the latest patches for CVE-2014-6271 and CVE-2014-7169, which (as of 2014-09-25) seem like they've been a bit rushed.

Example session

$ ls -l /bin/bash*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      20 Sep 26 01:12 /bin/bash -> /bin/bash-shellshock
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1029624 Sep 24 11:51 /bin/bash.real
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   10368 Sep 26 00:32 /bin/bash-shellshock

$ XX=1 XXX='()hello' /bin/bash -c env
bash-shellshock: Refusing to start due to possibly unsafe environment variable (see syslog)

$ XX=1 XXX='([world' /bin/bash -c env
bash-shellshock: Refusing to start due to possibly unsafe environment variable (see syslog)

$ sudo touch /etc/bash-shellshock.strip-vars

$ XX=1 XXX='()hello' bash -c env | grep ^XX
XX=1

$ sudo touch /etc/bash-shellshock.log-only

$ XX=1 XXX='()hello' bash -c env | grep ^XX
XX=1
XXX=()hello

$ sudo grep 'bash-shellshock\[' /var/log/auth.log
Sep 26 01:51:31 debian bash-shellshock[5003]: (PPID=4708 UID=1000 GID=1000 EUID=1000 EGID=1000 CWD=/home/dwon) \
    Refusing to start due to possibly unsafe environment variable: XXX=()hello
Sep 26 01:51:36 debian bash-shellshock[5009]: (PPID=4708 UID=1000 GID=1000 EUID=1000 EGID=1000 CWD=/home/dwon) \
    Refusing to start due to possibly unsafe environment variable: XXX=([world
Sep 26 01:51:41 debian bash-shellshock[5018]: (PPID=4708 UID=1000 GID=1000 EUID=1000 EGID=1000 CWD=/home/dwon) \
    Stripping possibly unsafe environment variable: XXX=()hello
Sep 26 01:51:50 debian bash-shellshock[5034]: (PPID=4708 UID=1000 GID=1000 EUID=1000 EGID=1000 CWD=/home/dwon) \
    Possibly unsafe environment variable: XXX=()hello

$ rm -f /etc/bash-shellshock.log-only /etc/bash-shellshock.strip-vars

Downloading

• Binary .deb packages for Debian and Ubuntu:

  https://github.com/dlitz/bash-shellshock/tree/binaries/binaries

• Source code:

  https://github.com/dlitz/bash-shellshock

Building from source

• To build and install this package from source under Debian or Ubuntu, clone the repository and run:

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -tc
sudo dpkg -i ../bash-shellshock_1.0_amd64.deb

See also the docs/sbuild.md file for information about building using sbuild.

• To compile manually, run this:

make
make install
ln /bin/bash /bin/bash.real
ln -sf /bin/bash-shellshock /bin/bash

You may need to adjust the paths in the Makefile.

Configuration

If bash-shellshock finds environment variables starting with '(', it will do one of three things (in order of priority):

1. If /etc/bash-shellshock.log-only exists, it will log the event to syslog and exec /bin/bash.real.

2. If /etc/bash-shellshock.strip-vars exists, it will log the event to syslog, remove the variable from the environment, and exec /bin/bash.real.

3. Otherwise, it will log the event to syslog and abort with exit status 255.

Testing

• For CVE-2014-6271

env X='() { ignored; }; /bin/echo "You are vulnerable to CVE 2014-6271"' bash -c true

• For CVE-2014-7169 (reference):

env X='() { (a)=>\' bash -c "echo date"; cat echo

Logging

Logs go to the LOG_AUTHPRIV syslog facility, which is typically found at /var/log/auth.log.

Caveat

This might break bash scripts that rely on receiving functions and/or arrays via the environment. You probably shouldn't do that anyway.

Better solution

Remove this silly feature from bash in the first place.

License

Copyright 2014 InboxApp Inc.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.