Vulnerability Note VU#179281

Electronic Arts SnoopyCtrl ActiveX control and plug-in stack buffer overflows

Original Release date: 08 Oct 2007 | Last revised: 09 Oct 2007

Overview

The Electronic Arts SnoopyCtrl ActiveX control and plug-in contains multiple stack buffer overflows, which could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

Description

Electronic Arts (EA.com) provides an ActiveX control and Netscape-style plug-in called SnoopyCtrl. This control, provided by NPSnpy.dll, is included with an EA.com update package. The SnoopyCtrl ActiveX control and plug-in contains buffer overflow vulnerabilities in multiple methods and initialization parameters.

Impact

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment), a remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user on a vulnerable system.

Solution

We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem. Please consider the following workarounds

Disable the SnoopyCtrl ActiveX control in Internet Explorer

The vulnerable ActiveX control can be disabled in Internet Explorer by setting the kill bit for the following CLSID:

    {525A15D0-4938-11D4-94C7-0050DA20189B}
More information about how to set the kill bit is available in Microsoft Support Document 240797. Alternatively, the following text can be saved as a .REG file and imported to set the kill bit for this control:
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{525A15D0-4938-11D4-94C7-0050DA20189B}]
    "Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
Disable the SnoopyCtrl plug-in in other browsers

The SnoopyCtrl plug-in can be disabled in other browsers, such as Firefox, by removing the NPSnpy.dll file from the plugins directory.

Disable ActiveX

Disabling ActiveX controls in the Internet Zone (or any zone used by an attacker) appears to prevent exploitation of this and other ActiveX vulnerabilities. Instructions for disabling ActiveX in the Internet Zone can be found in the "Securing Your Web Browser" document. 

Disable plug-ins

Disabling plug-ins by default can prevent exploitation of this and other plug-in vulnerabilities. This can be accomplished by configuring NoScript to Forbid other plugins for untrusted sites.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Electronic ArtsAffected04 Jun 200725 Aug 2007
If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.

CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

Group Score Vector
Base N/A N/A
Temporal N/A N/A
Environmental N/A N/A

References

Credit

This vulnerability was reported by Will Dormann of the CERT/CC.

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2007-4466
  • Date Public: 08 Oct 2007
  • Date First Published: 08 Oct 2007
  • Date Last Updated: 09 Oct 2007
  • Severity Metric: 4.02
  • Document Revision: 13

Feedback

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