Buffer Overflow in Windows QuickTime Player

I. BACKGROUND

QuickTime Player is a popular media player for both the Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac platforms.  More information about the application is available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ .

II. DESCRIPTION

An exploitable buffer overflow condition has been discovered in Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime Player, allowing for the remote execution of arbitrary code. The vulnerability lies in the processing of long QuickTime URL's (quicktime:// or through the -u switch). When processing a QuickTime URL, the application is launched in the following manner as can be seen from the Windows registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/quicktime:

%PATH TO QUICKTIME%\QuickTimePlayer.exe -u"%1"

A URL containing 400 characters will overrun the allocated space on the stack overwriting the saved instruction pointer (EIP). This will thereby allow an attacker to redirect the flow of control. An example URL that will cause QuickTime player to crash is:

quicktime://127.0.0.1/AAAA...

Where the character 'A' is repeated 400 times.

III. ANALYSIS

Any remote attacker can compromise a target system if he or she can convince a user to load a specially crafted exploit URL. Upon successful exploitation, arbitrary code can be executed under the privileges of the user who launched QuickTime. 

IV. DETECTION

iDEFENSE has confirmed that QuickTime Player versions 5.x and 6.0 for the Microsoft Windows platform are vulnerable. QuickTime for MacOS is not vulnerable.

V. WORKAROUND

Removing the QuickTime handler from the web browser or removing the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/quicktime can prevent automatic exploitation through HTML pages.

VI. VENDOR FIX

Apple has released QuickTime 6.1 which addresses this vulnerability.  It is available from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ .

VII. CVE INFORMATION

The Mitre Corp.'s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Project assigned the identification number CAN-2003-0168 to this issue.

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE

01/16/2003 Issue disclosed to iDEFENSE
02/24/2003 iDEFENSE notification sent to product-security@apple.com
02/24/2003 Response received from Apple Product Security team
02/24/2003 iDEFENSE clients notified
03/31/2003 Coordinated Public disclosure

IX. CREDIT
 
Texonet (http://www.texonet.com) is credited with discovering this vulnerability.