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Vulnerability Note VU#685364

Microsoft Internet Explorer contains a double-free vulnerability in the processing of GIF files

Overview

A double-free vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial-of-service condition or execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

I. Description

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) is a web browser. A double-free vulnerability has been discovered in the way that Internet Explorer processes GIF image files. When processing GIF image files, the routine responsible for freeing memory may attempt to free the same memory reference more than once. Deallocating the already freed memory can lead to memory corruption, which could cause a denial-of-service condition or potentially be leveraged by an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

II. Impact

A remote attacker may be able to cause a denial of service or potentially execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system by introducing a specially crafted GIF file. This malicious GIF image may be introduced to the system via a malicious web page, HTML email, or an email attachment.

III. Solution

Apply Patch

Apply a patch as described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-025.

Systems Affected

VendorStatusDate Updated
Microsoft CorporationVulnerable30-Jul-2004

References

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-212A.html
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-025.mspx
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/8530
http://secunia.com/advisories/12192/
http://www.securitytracker.com/alerts/2004/Jul/1010827.html
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/o-191.shtml

Credit

This vulnerability was reported by Marc Ruef.

This document was written by Damon Morda.

Other Information

Date Public09/02/2003
Date First Published07/30/2004 03:38:45 PM
Date Last Updated08/03/2004
CERT Advisory 
CVE NameCAN-2003-1048
US-CERT Technical Alerts 
Metric25.31
Document Revision15

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