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Re: Nmap NOT VULNERABLE to Windows DLL Hijacking Vulnerability


From: jf <jf () ownco net>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 15:41:35 -0500

Nmap is not vulnerable.  DLL hijacking works because of an unfortunate
interaction between apps which register Windows file extensions and
the default Windows DLL search path used for those apps.  Nmap does
not, and never has, registered any Windows file extensions.  So it
isn't vulnerable to this issue.

The "easy demo" is with clicks, which needs registration of extensions.
The "real thing" is a DLL in the current directory. Unless you always
use "cd path/to/nmap; ./nmap" to start, you are vulnerable: most people
would set their %PATH% to include the right thing for easy nmap.

Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding of the issue was not the default library search path, but rather that 
people are using SearchPath() or similar to locate DLLs which they then pass to LoadLibrary(); thus making it not a 
default behavior, but one from people who didn't read the API docs.

This isn't really relevant to nmap and whether its 'vulnerable' or not; I can't see anyone opening a URL with nmap 
itself, so it seems fairly irrelevant to me. Just commenting on whether this is default behavior or not.

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