Apple Releases Slew of Security Updates (OSX, Safari, iTunes, iOS 5, aTV)
I wasn’t going to post about last week’s fairly significant iTunes update, but then Apple went and patched a whole bunch of vulnerabilities across the board. Some of these are fairly significant so I thought I would provide a short breakdown of the changes. Either way, you should definitely be patching all of your Apple devices and software tonight.
Hit the jump for a summary of the key vulnerabilities patched in Apple’s security updates.
Mac OS X 10.6.7 and Security Update 2011-001
Apple has released 10.6.7 and its first security patch of the year, 2011-001, fixing a large number of bugs and vulnerabilities. In particular it fixes a known graphics bug in the 2011 MacBook Pros. It also improves Back To My Mac connectivity and SMB (windows file sharing). From a security perspective it fixes issues in a number of components including the Kernel, Airport, ImageIO, and QuickTime, many of which potentially lead to remote code execution. This update also adds detection for the OSX.OpinionSpy spyware to Mac OS X’s built-in file quarantine.
It’s a fairly big update, so users are naturally advised to patch soon. Hit the jump for the full list of security issues fixed. Read more
Apple Releases QuickTime 7.6.9 Security Update
Apple has released QuickTime 7.6.9 for Leopard 10.5.8 and Windows (XP,V,7), patching a number of vulnerabilities including several that were fixed in the recent 10.6.5 update.
The vulnerabilities include improper handling of JP2, AVI, MPEG, Flashpix, GIF, PICT, and QTVR files. Viewing maliciously-crafted files can lead to remote code execution in some cases.
QuickTime definitely needs more strengthening. Leopard and Windows users, go forth and patch!
Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.5 (Security Update 2010-007)
Apple has finally released Mac OS X 10.6.5 bringing a number of bugfixes and security patches to the OS and applications. The list includes numerous improvements to AFP (File Sharing Protocol), QuickTime, and other image/PDF-based issues. I noticed that Apple are crediting themselves on quite a few of these, so it’s nice to see they’re putting in the effort of hunting down bugs.
Available via Software Update!
Apple QuickTime 7.6.7 “_Marshaled_pUnk” Code Execution Vulnerability and Metasploit Exploit
A new (read: yet another) 0day QuickTime vulnerability has been discovered by researcher Ruben Santamarta which leads to arbitrary client-side code execution. The vulnerability, which affects QuickTime <= 7.6.7 on Windows XP, Vista and 7 and defeats DEP and ASLR, is due to a flaw in the way the QuickTime ActiveX controller handles a supplied parameter and treats it as a trusted pointer.
This vulnerability can be exploited by luring the victim to a malicious web page. A heap-spraying Metasploit module has already been published which exploits this issue.
QuickTime Player SMIL Buffer Overflow and Metasploit Exploit
On the 26th July 2010, Krystian Kloskowski discovered a vulnerability in QuickTime Player 7.6.6 for Windows caused by a buffer overflow in the application’s error logging.
The original advisory states:
The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error in QuickTimeStreaming.qtx when constructing a string to write to a debug log file. This can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by e.g. tricking a user into viewing a specially crafted web page that references a SMIL file containing an overly long URL.
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability leads to the ability of executing arbitrary code on the victim’s computer.
A couple of days ago, Joshua Drake (aka. jduck) submitted a working exploit module to the Metasploit Framework.
As QuickTime is installed on many Windows systems these days (it’s included as part of iTunes), this vulnerability poses a real threat. As always users should beware of clicking on unknown links, but ultimately if someone wants to get you to visit a malicious page, they can.
In this case users should update QuickTime asap. Apple has released QuickTime 7.6.7 which fixes this issue.
[Update] Check out the video below for a demo of the Metasploit module in action:
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