Apple QuickTime Color Table ID Heap Corruption Vulnerability

iDefense Security Advisory 03.05.07
http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/ 
Mar 05, 2007

I. BACKGROUND

Quicktime is Apple's media player product used to render video and other
media. For more information visit http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ 

II. DESCRIPTION

Remote exploitation of a heap corruption vulnerability in Apple Computer
Inc.'s QuickTime media player could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary
commands in the context of the current user.

The vulnerability specifically exists in QuickTime players handling of
Video media atoms. When the 'Color table ID' field in the Video Sample
Description is 0, QuickTime expects a color table to be present
immediately after the description. A byte swap process is then performed
on the memory following the description, regardless if a table is present
or not. Heap corruption will occur in the case when the memory following
the description is not part of the heap chunk being processed.

III. ANALYSIS

Exploitation allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of
the current user.

In order to exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must persuade a victim
into opening a specially crafted media file. This could be accomplished by
either a direct link or referenced from a website under the attacker's
control. No further interaction is required in the default configuration.

IV. DETECTION

iDefense Labs confirmed this vulnerability exists in version 7.1.3 of
QuickTime on Windows. Previous versions are suspected to be vulnerable.

V. WORKAROUND

iDefense is currently unaware of any effective workarounds for this
vulnerability.

VI. VENDOR RESPONSE

Apple has addressed this vulnerability by releasing version 7.1.5 of
Quicktime. More information can be found in Apple Advisory
APPLE-SA-2007-03-05 at the following URL.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305149 

VII. CVE INFORMATION

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
name CVE-2007-0718 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in
the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for 
security problems.

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE

12/06/2006  Initial vendor notification
12/11/2007  Initial vendor response
02/01/2007  Second vendor notification
03/05/2007  Coordinated public disclosure

IX. CREDIT

This vulnerability was reported to iDefense by Ruben Santamarta of
Reversemode Labs (www.reversemode.com). 

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X. LEGAL NOTICES

Copyright =A9 2007 iDefense, Inc.

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