RE: VNC Security Bulletin - zlib double free issue (multiple vendors and versions)

From: Andrew van der Stock (ajvat_private)
Date: Fri Apr 05 2002 - 00:13:58 PST

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    Anthony,
    
    Good point. 
    
    Apple has not changed its mind, and we've not contacted them. The
    reasoning for including it is that VNC Thing is statically linked
    against zlib 1.1.3, thus potentially leading to a local viewer crash
    given the circumstances noted in our advisory - including the caveat
    that the malloc/free behavior has to be faulty as well, which may or may
    not be true. 
    
    Apple's statement is: "Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server do not contain this
    vulnerability." Does MacOS X and MacOS X Server even have a copy of zlib
    (ie libz.so) by default? Or is down to the FreeBSD malloc / free
    behavior of MacOS X? Hard to say - not a lot of information to go on. 
    
    VNC Thing is being updated, if you're concerned and want to upgrade,
    great. Otherwise, in a very narrow set of circumstances, it *may* be
    possible to cause the VNC Thing viewer to crash as older versions *do*
    have a copy of the faulty zlib library. 
    
    Andrew
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Anthony DeRobertis [mailto:asdat_private] 
    Sent: Friday, 5 April 2002 5:58 PM
    To: Andrew van der Stock
    Cc: bugtraqat_private
    Subject: Re: VNC Security Bulletin - zlib double free issue (multiple
    vendors and versions)
    
    
    On Tuesday, April 2, 2002, at 08:17 PM, Andrew van der Stock wrote:
    
    > * VNCThing prior to version 2.3 for Mac OS 8/9/X
    >
    Apple has stated that the zlib vulnerabilities do not apply to 
    Mac OS X (see the vendor responses to the original CERT notice, 
    for example). Is VNCThing for Mac OS X an exception? Or has 
    Apple changed its mind.
    



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