Vulnerability Note VU#377368

Apple iTunes fails to properly handle overly long URLs in playlists

Overview

A buffer overflow vulnerability in iTunes could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.

I. Description

Apple iTunes is a digital media player available for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. It supports a variety of playlist formats including .m3u and .pls. A playlist allows a user to organize the order in which media files are played. In addition to media files, URLs to digital streams can be included in a playlist. There is a buffer overflow vulnerability in the way iTunes parses URL entries in .m3u and .pls playlist files. If a remote attacker creates a specially crafted playlist containing an overly long URL, a buffer overflow will occur and could lead to arbitrary code execution.

II. Impact

By convincing a user to load a specially crafted .m3u or .pls playlist file into iTunes, an attacker could execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user.

III. Solution

Install Update

Apple has addressed this issue in iTunes version 4.7.1. For further details, please refer to the iTunes 4.7.1 section in the Apple Security Advisory.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Apple Computer Inc.	Vulnerable	14-Jan-2005

References

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798
http://idefense.com/application/poi/display?id=180&type=vulnerabilities&flashstatus=true
http://secunia.com/advisories/13804/

Credit

iDEFENSE credits Sean de Regge for reporting this vulnerability

This document was written by Damon Morda.

Other Information

Date Public:	2005-01-11
Date First Published:	2005-01-14
Date Last Updated:	2005-01-14
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CAN-2005-0043
NVD-ID(s):	CAN-2005-0043
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	30.37
Document Revision:	12

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