Software Engineering Institute

The BlackBerry Attachment Service is a component of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). The BlackBerry Attachment Service renders certain types of files sent as email attachments for display on BlackBerry Handhelds and other BlackBerry client devices. A heap overflow vulnerability in the way the service renders TIFF format image files could allow an attacker supplying a specially crafted TIFF file to cause the service to stop functioning. A user must view the attacker-supplied attachment on a BlackBerry Handheld in order to trigger the vulnerability.

From RIM Technical Knowledge Center article KB-04757:

There is no impact on any other services (for example, sending and receiving messages, making phone calls, browsing the Internet, and running handheld applications to access a corporate network).

The Attachment Service automatically restarts immediately or within a specified time period (the default is 25 minutes). The administrator can restart the Attachment Service at any time.

By supplying a specially crafted TIFF image as an email attachment and convincing a user to view the image on a BlackBerry Handheld, a remote, unauthenticated attacker could cause a denial of service to the Blackberry Attachment Service. A denial of service may only affect some users, and the Attachment Service may start new threads immediately or after a specified time period (25 minutes by default).

RIM Technical Knowledge Center article KB-04757 states that "This is a previously reported issue that has been escalated internally to our development team. No resolution time frame is currently available."

Until a complete solution is available, "An administrator can selectively exclude TIFF images from being processed by the Attachment Service in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, or disable the Attachment Service completely." as described in RIM Technical Knowledge Center article KB-04757.