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Apple fixes more QuickTime media flaws
Posted by: Tweaker
Date added: 08:57, 14th December 2007 GMT
Source: Computer World News
Apple Inc. patched several bugs in QuickTime on Thursday, including a three-week-old streaming media vulnerability for which exploit code has been in circulation since the end of November.
Unveiled Thursday afternoon, QuickTime 7.3.1 patches problems in how the program handles three types of media content. The most anticipated fix, however, plugged the Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) hole first disclosed Nov. 23 by Polish researcher Krystian Kloskowski.
Apple today also patched other media-related vulnerabilities, including a buffer overflow bug in the QuickTime movie file format (QTL) and an unspecified number of flaws in QuickTime's handling of Flash files. To fix the Flash vulnerabilities, Apple disabled QuickTime's media handler for all Flash content "except for a limited number of existing QuickTime movies that are known to be safe," according to a security advisory the company posted.
The Flash strategy was almost identical to the tack Apple took with Java a month ago when it last patched QuickTime. Then, Apple essentially gave up on Java; rather than patch QuickTime yet again, it simply killed most of its Java-handling skills.
Exploits against any of the vulnerabilities patched today could result in what Apple calls "arbitrary code execution," meaning an attacker can inject malware or hijack the system. Apple does not rank its software mistakes, but other vendors, such as Microsoft Corp., usually label such vulnerabilities as critical.
Existing copies of QuickTime can be updated to 7.3.1 using Mac OS X's built-in Software Update feature, while Windows XP and Vista users can either download the patched version from the Apple Web site or use the Windows-only update tool.
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