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Secunia Research 18/02/2005
- Yahoo! Messenger Audio Setup Wizard Privilege Escalation -
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Table of Contents
Affected Software....................................................1
Severity.............................................................2
Vendor's Description of Software.....................................3
Description of Vulnerability.........................................4
Solution.............................................................5
Time Table...........................................................6
Credits..............................................................7
References...........................................................8
About Secunia........................................................9
Verification........................................................10
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1) Affected Software
Yahoo! Messenger 6.0.0.1750 (for Windows)
NOTE: Other versions may also be affected.
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2) Severity
Rating: Less Critical
Impact: Privilege Escalation
Where: Local System
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3) Vendor's Description of Software
Yahoo! Messenger:
"Yahoo! Messenger is a free instant messaging service that you can
use to communicate with other people who also use Yahoo! Messenger".
Product link:
http://messenger.yahoo.com/
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4) Description of Vulnerability
Secunia Research has discovered a vulnerability in Yahoo! Messenger,
which can be exploited by malicious, local users to gain escalated
privileges.
The vulnerability is caused due to a combination of weak default
directory permissions and the Audio Setup Wizard (asw.dll) invoking
the "ping.exe" utility insecurely during the connection testing phase.
This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code with the privileges
of another user by placing a malicious "ping.exe" file in the
application's "Messenger" directory.
Successful exploitation requires that a user runs the Audio Setup
Wizard and that the application has been installed in a non-default
location (not as a subdirectory to the "Program Files" directory).
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5) Solution
Vendor issued a fixed version on February 16, 2005.
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6) Time Table
04/01/2005 - Vendor notified.
14/01/2005 - Vendor contacted second time.
17/01/2005 - Vendor response.
16/02/2005 - Vendor issues updated version.
18/02/2005 - Public disclosure.
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7) Credits
Discovered by Carsten Eiram, Secunia Research.
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8) References
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned
candidate number CAN-2005-0242 for the vulnerability.
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9) About Secunia
Secunia collects, validates, assesses, and writes advisories regarding
all the latest software vulnerabilities disclosed to the public. These
advisories are gathered in a publicly available database at the
Secunia website:
http://secunia.com/
Secunia offers services to our customers enabling them to receive all
relevant vulnerability information to their specific system
configuration.
Secunia offers a FREE mailing list called Secunia Security Advisories:
http://secunia.com/secunia_security_advisories/
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10) Verification
Please verify this advisory by visiting the Secunia web site:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/2004-6/
Complete list of vulnerability reports published by Secunia Research:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/
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