Tag: exploit

Windows .ANI Vulnerability – The plot thickens

The Internet Storm Center is reporting that the newly released Microsoft patch is causing some problems. There one known problem and a bunch of reports about other problems.

The first problem is with the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel. Apparently, the control panel won’t start after the patch is installed, complaining about a DLL being illegally relocated. Microsoft has released another patch to resolve this.

The other problems are currently undefined. Microsoft is asking that users experiencing problems contact their support line so they can investigate the issues.

Because of these problems, it may be worth it to take a second look at the ZERT patch. If you’re experiencing problems with the Microsoft patch, try uninstalling it and install the ZERT patch instead. It’s possible that you’ll experience similar problems with the ZERT patch, but it’s worth giving it a shot.

Good luck!

Windows .ANI Vulnerability

Another day, another vulnerability… This time it’s animated cursors. You know, those crazy animated cursors Microsoft included in one of their Plus! packs back in the day?

Well, it seems that there’s a stack overflow exploit in the way they’re handled by the OS. In a nutshell, when it copies the data into memory, it doesn’t properly check the size of the memory being copied. The result is that memory is overwritten and the stack overflows.

The Zero-day Emergency Response Team has a pretty good writeup on their site about the exploit as well as a patch to resolve the problem. This is a pretty big security issue, so I recommend at least checking out the info on their site.

This vulnerability affects Windows 98, 2000, XP, Server 2003, and Vista. The Internet Storm Center also warns that other unsupported versions of Windows, probably Windows 95 and ME, are also likely affected. Neither ZERT nor Microsoft are likely to release a patch for Windows 95 or ME. Additionally, they have a nice matrix that explains which mail clients are vulnerable to this as well.

Microsoft has released an out-of-cycle patch for this vulnerability. You can find the relevent files on their advisory page, bulletin MS07-017. Patches for Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, and Vista are available. If you still use Windows 98, the ZERT patch is your only option.

Update : eEye had released a patch back on March 30th for this vulnerability. However, this patch only ensures that .ANI files are loaded from the SystemRoot and not anywhere else. While this helps prevent most exploits, if an attacker can somehow gain access to the SystemRoot, the system is still vulnerable.

Please take special note : This is being actively exploited in the wild. This is a serious remote access vulnerability which can lead to your computer being compromised. Please make sure you have an anti-virus program installed and up-to-date. And remember, your first line of defense is you. Be responsible, know the risks, install the patches, and keep yourself safe.

Voting in an electronic world

Well, I did my civic duty and voted this morning. I have my misgivings about the entire election process and the corruption that abounds in the government, but if I refuse to vote, then I really can’t complain, can I.

So, after waking up and getting ready for work, I headed to the local polling location to check out the Diebold AccuVote TSX system they wanted me to vote on. It’s a neat looking machine from afar, but once I got up close, I was sorely disappointed.

I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but these seemed to be very flimsy, rushed systems. The touchscreen didn’t feel right, tho it was presumably accurate, lighting up my choices as I chose them. There was a slight delay after I touched the screen, however, and that was annoying. The first time I tried to vote, it rejected the card I was given and flashed an error about being cleared. Well, I hope that’s what it said. Thinking back on it now, I’m upset that I didn’t take more time to read the screen. I’m honestly not sure if the error stated that the card was cleared, or that the machine was cleared. And when I returned the card for one that worked, the lady I gave it to mentioned that there were a bunch of cards she was having problems with. Not good..

On a positive note, the mechanism that held and ejected the voting card seemed to be well built. It worked well. I think that’s about the only piece that I thought was decent though. Kinda pathetic actually.

Speaking of the Diebold machines, I urge you to check out the HBO special, “Hacking Democracy.” The entire show is up on Google Video for your viewing pleasure. You can access the video here.

ZERT Patch for IE Vulnerability

ZERT is back at it again. They’ve released a patch for the latest Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerability. Actually, it’s more of an automated script that disables the ActiveX controls that are vulnerable. Much easier than hand-editing the registry. Check it out if you use IE.

More IE Exploits

Another day, another Microsoft exploit. This time it’s an exploit in the WebViewFolderIcon function. So far this only seems to affect Internet Explorer, or more accurately, ActiveX. The vulnerability in this instance is an integer overflow in the COMCTL32.DLL file which means that other attacks, possibly more serious, may be on the way. COMCTL32.DLL is the “Common Controls” library used in many Windows applications. This is the same library that displays the list boxes, combo boxes, etc. in Windows. Saying this is an important DLL may be quite the understatement.

 

The Internet Storm Center has more details about this vulnerabilty and some recommendations as to how to fix it. In short, they suggest keeping your Anti-Virus up-to-date, and setting some killbits. Killbits, however, are not for the faint of heart. Unless you really know what you’re doing, my suggestion is to drop IE for the time being and switch to another browser. Firefox is my browser of choice, but you can use whichever you’d like. If you absolutely need to use IE for specific web pages that you can trust, then I suggest checking out Firefox and the IE Tab extension. With that, you can create a list of sites that will be displayed in IE while the rest are displayed using the Firefox engine.

 

Microsoft has acknowledged the vulnerability and is working on a patch for it. Again, they promise an October 10 release. Hopefully they see reason once again and can patch this as soon as possible.

IE VML Exploit Update

Kudos to Microsoft for releasing a patch for the recent VML security bug (CVE-2006-4868). The patch is available for download via the MS06-055 Security Bulletin they released earlier today.

 

I’m impressed that they thought this was a severe enough problem to warrant an earlier release than the October 10th date they stated in the original Security Advisory. They have updated the original advisory and removed most of that content, however, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. And, funnily enough, they apparently used the cut and paste approach as the current revision points this out as the “Powerpoint Mso.dll Vulnerability” and not the Vgx.dll vulnerability. Well, noone’s perfect..

 

Now get out there and patch! And while you’re at it, check those anti-virus definitions and make sure those are up to date. And if you don’t already have some sort of firewall, get one!

Internet Explorer VML Vulnerability

Looks like there’s yet *another* IE vulnerability on the loose. This particular vulnerability uses a bug in VML (Vector Markup Language) to cause a buffer overflow and allow the attacker to gain access to the system. I’m a little late to the scene, but this was initially reported on September 18th. But FEAR NOT! Microsoft has happily released a security advisory in which they explain that they know about the vulnerability, and that they’ll release a patch on October 10th.

 

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Umm.. October 10th? That’s almost a month *AFTER* the report was made public.. This happens to be a really nasty bug that can cause your computer to be completely compromised and they admit to knowing about code in the wild exploiting this bug!

The person who reported this was not being irresponsible and revealing a “potential” security issue the the hacker community. Quite the opposite, in fact, they were reporting a known in-the-wild exploit with the intention of informing the masses so they could act accordingly. For Microsoft to not release a patch quicker, or even publish some viable mitigation strategy is incredibly irresponsible. At the very least they could explain how to unregister the VGX.DLL file that is the source of the expoit. Luckily, Sunbelt has instructions on how to do this.

If you’re interested in a better solution, ZERT (Zeroday Emergency Response Team) has created a patch to fix the problem. Be aware that this is not sanctioned by Microsoft and is supplied As-Is. However, if you rely on IE and want a reasonable sense of security, this may be your only choice until the behemoth from Redmond decides to release an “official” patch.

My recommendation? Switch to something else. There’s Firefox (my personal choice), Opera, and others. IE just has too many problems.

 

If you’d like to read more about this vulnerability, check out these links :

 

SunbeltBLOG – These are the guys that first reported the problem

TaoSecurity – A report about ZERT and how they’re proving that the closed source security model is broken

eWeek – A report about the vulnerability and the patch that ZERT created

 

I also want to point out that I’m not necessarily anti-Microsoft. I believe they’ve helped out the computer industry in many ways. However, I dislike many of their practices, and this is definitely one of them. It’s important for any software developer to release security patches when necessary. It is of utmost importance for a closed-source developer to release security patches as fast as possible because they’re the only ones who can truly patch the hole. Open source allows anyone, with the necessary skills, to patch the hole. I’m not saying Microsoft should open-source Windows, but maybe they should work a little harder to put together patches with more speed.