Microsoft Security Bulletin MS01-042

[Microsoft Product Security <secnotif () MICROSOFT COM>]

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Title:      Windows Media Player .NSC Processor Contains Unchecked
            Buffer
Date:       26 July 2001
Software:   Windows Media Player 6.4, 7, and 7.1
Impact:     Run code of attacker's choice.
Bulletin:   MS01-042

Microsoft encourages customers to review the Security Bulletin at: 
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-042.asp.
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Issue:
======
Windows Media Player provides support for audio and video streaming. 
Streaming media channels can be configured by using Windows Media 
Station (.NSC) files. An unchecked buffer exists in the functionality
used to process Windows Media Station files. This unchecked buffer 
could potentially allow an attacker to run code of his choice on the 
machine of another user. The attacker could either send a specially 
malformed file to another user and entice her to run or preview it,
or 
he could host such a file on a web site and cause it to launch 
automatically whenever a user visited the site. The code could take
any action on the machine that the legitimate user himself could
take.

Mitigating Factors:
====================
 - Customers who have applied the Outlook E-mail Security Update
   (OESU) for Outlook 2000 or are running Outlook XP, which has the
   OESU functionality built-in, are automatically protected against
   HTML e-mail based attempts to exploit this vulnerability.
 
 - For others not in the above categories, the attacker would have to
   entice the potential victim to visit a web site he controlled, or
to
   open an HTML e-mail he had sent. 

 - The attacker would need to know the specific operating system that
   the user was running in order to tailor the attack code properly;
if
   the attacker made an incorrect guess about the user's operating
   system platform, the attack would crash the user's Windows Media
   Player session, but not run code of the attacker's choice. 

Patch Availability:
===================
 - A patch is available to fix this vulnerability. Please read the 
   Security Bulletin
   http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-042.asp
   for information on obtaining this patch.

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