Vulnerability Note VU#683765

AOL Instant Messenger vulnerable to denial of service via crafted file name

Overview

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) 4.1 and prior are vulnerable to a denial of service vulnerability. A denial of service occurs when filenames that contain a "%s" are sent to a victim.

I. Description

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is a program for communicating with other users over the Internet. AIM permits users to transfer files from one client to another. Versions 4.1 and prior contained a fromat string vulnerability that made it possible to cause a denial of service to the recipient of a file, when the file transferred contained a "%s" in the name.

II. Impact

An attacker can crash the victim's client causing a denial of service. Note that this vulnerability is consistant with a format string vulnerability and there may be the potential to exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code.

III. Solution

Upgrade to a version later than 4.1.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
AOL Time Warner	Vulnerable	28-Jan-2002

References

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/1747

Credit

Our thanks to Adam Spun <spunone@fazed.net>, who discovered this vulnerability.

This document was written by Jason Rafail.

Other Information

Date Public:	2000-10-03
Date First Published:	2002-04-05
Date Last Updated:	2002-04-05
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CVE-2000-1000
NVD-ID(s):	CVE-2000-1000
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	7.50
Document Revision:	11

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.

Get Adobe Reader