Vulnerability Note VU#289235

BlackBerry Attachment Service PDF distiller vulnerable to arbitrary code execution

Original Release date: 18 Jul 2008 | Last revised: 18 Jul 2008

Overview

The PDF Distiller service that is provided with BlackBerry Enterprise Server contains a vulnerability that may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

Description

The BlackBerry Attachment Service is a component of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and BlackBerry Unite!. The BlackBerry Attachment Service renders certain types of files sent as email attachments for display on BlackBerry Handhelds and other BlackBerry client devices. An unspecified vulnerability in the PDF distiller component of the BlackBerry Attachment Service may allow arbitrary code execution on the system that runs the vulnerable service.

Impact

By convincing a user to open a specially-crafted PDF attachment on a BlackBerry smartphone, a remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code on the system that runs the BlackBerry Attachment Service.

Solution

Apply an update

This issue is addressed in BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 Service Pack 6 (4.1.6). Please see BlackBerry document KB15766 for more details.
This issue is also addressed in BlackBerry Unite! 1.0 Service Pack 1 (1.0.1) bundle 36. Please see BlackBerry document KB15770 for more details.


Prevent the BlackBerry Attachment Service from processing PDF files

BlackBerry document KB15766 and KB15770 outline several ways of preventing the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Unite! from processing PDF files, which can help mitigate this vulnerability.

Systems Affected

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Research in Motion (RIM)Vulnerable16 Jul 200818 Jul 2008

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 issue was reported by Research In Motion.

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: Unknown
  • Date Public: 17 Jul 2008
  • Date First Published: 18 Jul 2008
  • Date Last Updated: 18 Jul 2008
  • Severity Metric: 20.31
  • Document Revision: 6

Feedback

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This product is provided subject to the Notification as indicated here: http://www.us-cert.gov/legal.html#notify

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