Research Archives > Security Advisories > AD20050623

RealPlayer vidplin.dll AVI Processing Heap Overflow

Release Date:
6/23/2005 12:00:00 AM

Date Reported:
5/4/2005 12:00:00 AM

Severity:
High

Vendor:
RealNetworks

Affected Software:
Versions running on Microsoft Windows

RealPlayer 10.5 (6.0.12.1040-1069)
RealPlayer 10
RealOne Player v2
RealOne Player v1
RealPlayer 8
RealPlayer Enterprise

Overview:
eEye Digital Security has discovered a critical vulnerability in RealPlayer. The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to reliably overwrite heap memory with arbitrary data and execute arbitrary code in the context of the user who executed the player.

This specific flaw exists within the vidplin.dll file used by RealPlayer. By specially crafting a malformed .avi movie file, a direct heap overwrite is triggered, and reliable code execution is then possible. This vulnerability can be triggered when a user views a webpage, or opens an .avi file via email, instant messenger, or other common file transfer programs.

Technical Details:
When processing AVI files RealPlayer calls upon a specific DLL, vidplin.dll, where the vulnerability lies. Realplayer relies on a strf structure value and allocates a fixed memory space of 0x428 that can be overflowed with values greater than the fixed buffer size causing arbitrary code to be executed.

Protection:
Retina Network Security Scanner has been updated to identify this vulnerability.
Blink - Endpoint Vulnerability Prevention - preemptively protects from this vulnerability.

Vendor Status:
RealNetworks has released a patch for this vulnerability.

Credit:
Discovery: Fang Xing

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