Vulnerability Note VU#901852

Yahoo Messenger YMailAttach ActiveX control buffer overflow

Original Release date: 15 Dec 2006 | Last revised: 06 Feb 2007

Overview

The Yahoo Messenger YMailAttach ActiveX control contains a buffer overflow, which could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

Description

Yahoo Messenger is an instant messaging application. Yahoo Messenger includes several ActiveX controls. The YMailAttach ActiveX control, which is provided by ymmapi.dll, contains a buffer overflow vulnerability.

Impact

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. The attacker could also cause Internet Explorer (or the program using the WebBrowser control) to crash.

Solution

Apply an update

As specified in the Yahoo Security Update, this issue is addressed in versions of Yahoo Messenger from Nov 2nd 2006 or later. Version 2005.1.1.4 or higher of ymmapi.dll contains the fix.


Disable the YMailAttach ActiveX control in Internet Explorer

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

     {AA218328-0EA8-4D70-8972-E987A9190FF4}
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\{AA218328-0EA8-4D70-8972-E987A9190FF4}]
    "Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
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. 

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Yahoo, Inc.Affected-15 Dec 2006
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

Thanks to Yahoo for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2006-6603
  • Date Public: 08 Dec 2006
  • Date First Published: 15 Dec 2006
  • Date Last Updated: 06 Feb 2007
  • Severity Metric: 27.94
  • Document Revision: 9

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