RealPlayer security fix is faulty

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28308.html

By John Leyden
Posted: 26/11/2002 at 17:49 GMT

That nemesis of application security, the buffer overrun, has found
its way into media players from RealNetworks.

Three similar, though separate, flaws in RealPlayer (and its update
RealOne) create a way for crackers to inject hostile code onto Windows
boxes of victims induced to run maliciously constructed media files.  
In common with most buffer overflow flaws (which are typically
attributable to programming errors), hostile code could execute in the
security context of the logged-on user/victim.

All three flaws were discovered by NGS Software. It notified
RealNetworks of the problem on November 1, and the company followed up
with an advisory and security fixes on November 20.

Problem is - the fixes don't work.

Mark Litchfield, of NGS Software, found that patches failed to address
the problem.

Oh dear.

The risk is compounded by the fact that Litchfield, acting in good
faith, posted a detailed advisory on security mailing after receiving
patches from RealNetworks - but before testing them - so now
information on the issue has spread across the Net.

"The problem is still out there now," Litchfield told us this
afternoon. "There's no working fix nor any workaround. My only
suggestion would be not to use RealPlayer (if you were paranoid
enough) until a working patch is available."

According to RealNetworks, there are currently around 115 million
users worldwide of RealOne/RealPlayer.

All the more reason to fix the problem ASAP.



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