Latest VLC version has dangerous hole
Posted on: 01/30/2013 04:15 PM
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The developers of the VLC video player have warned of a crashing bug in the latest 2.0.5 version of the application, which might be exploited to execute arbitrary code. The issue is a problem in the ASF demuxer (libasf_plugin.*), which can be tricked into overflowing a buffer with a specially crafted ASF movie. The developers note that users would have to open that specially crafted file to be vulnerable and advise users to not open files from untrusted third parties or untrusted sites.
Another workaround is to delete the demuxer plugin found in \VLC\plugins\demux\libasf_plugin.dll on Windows to disable the vulnerable function. A patch has been developed which replaces the vulnerable macro with static inline code and better bounds checking, and that has been applied to the forthcoming version 2.0.6 release of VLC. Already patched versions of VLC for Windows and Mac OS X are available from the VLC nightlies site, but may have other bugs as they are ongoing development versions.
Another workaround is to delete the demuxer plugin found in \VLC\plugins\demux\libasf_plugin.dll on Windows to disable the vulnerable function. A patch has been developed which replaces the vulnerable macro with static inline code and better bounds checking, and that has been applied to the forthcoming version 2.0.6 release of VLC. Already patched versions of VLC for Windows and Mac OS X are available from the VLC nightlies site, but may have other bugs as they are ongoing development versions.
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