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    Home Latest News
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    • Security Watch

    Apple Fixes QuickTime Hole

    By
    Lisa Vaas
    -
    May 2, 2007
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      Apple has stitched up the hole in QuickTime that allowed hackers at the CanSecWest security show to take over a MacBook Pro in a Pwn-2-Own contest on April 20.

      The zero-day vulnerability was discovered by Dino Dai Zovi, a principal at security firm Matasano Security, who then passed it on to his accomplice on-site at the show, developer Shane Macaulay. The exploit netted Macaulay a 17-inch MacBook, and Dai Zovi pocketed $10,000 in prize money.

      The hole is a serious one: Terri Forslof, manager of security response at TippingPoint, compared it to the Windows animated cursor vulnerability in terms of impact and the possibility of system hijacking to which both flaws can lead.

      “The method of attack is the same as what Microsoft calls ‘Click and you’re owned.’ You get an e-mail, visit a malicious Web site and boom, you’re owned. Where there’s still that one-step user interaction, it’s still a serious vulnerability. Anytime you illegally break into a machine, it’s a hack,” Forslof told me last week.

      In issuing the update, QuickTime 7.1.6, Apple described it as an implementation issue in QuickTime for Java that may allow reading or writing out of the bounds of the allocated heap. The exploit works by enticing a user to visit a site containing a maliciously crafted Java applet, which the attacker can trigger and use to cause arbitrary code execution.

      The update, available for Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.9, Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 SP4, fixes the hole by doing additional bounds checking when creating QTPointerRef objects, Apple said.

      The hole didn’t lead to exploits in the wild, although much commotion ensued after an apparent troll claimed to have wirelessly intercepted the exploit at CanSecWest. Although the claim was fairly ludicrous—the Pwn-2-Own contest was being held on a closed, wired network, and the wireless network at the show was being monitored and would have picked up on an intercept—the security and Apple user community momentarily freaked last week.

      The QuickTime update can be downloaded at Apple Downloads or with Software Update preferences.

      Lisa Vaas
      Lisa Vaas is News Editor/Operations for eWEEK.com and also serves as editor of the Database topic center. Since 1995, she has also been a Webcast news show anchorperson and a reporter covering the IT industry. She has focused on customer relationship management technology, IT salaries and careers, effects of the H1-B visa on the technology workforce, wireless technology, security, and, most recently, databases and the technologies that touch upon them. Her articles have appeared in eWEEK's print edition, on eWEEK.com, and in the startup IT magazine PC Connection. Prior to becoming a journalist, Vaas experienced an array of eye-opening careers, including driving a cab in Boston, photographing cranky babies in shopping malls, selling cameras, typography and computer training. She stopped a hair short of finishing an M.A. in English at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She earned a B.S. in Communications from Emerson College. She runs two open-mic reading series in Boston and currently keeps bees in her home in Mashpee, Mass.
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