eEye Security in October 2004 discovered a flaw in the .rm RealMovie stream handling routines which allows a remote attacker to exploit an integer overflow vulnerability using a special .rm file. This might allow a remote attacker to execute code as the user running RealPlayer.
______________________________________________________________________________
SUSE Security Announcement
Package: realplayer 8
Announcement-ID: SUSE-SA:2005:004
Date: Monday, Jan 24th 2005 16:00 MET
Affected products: 8.1, 8.2, 9.0, 9.1
SUSE Linux Desktop 1.0
Vulnerability Type: remote code execution
Severity (1-10): 8
SUSE default package: yes
Cross References: none
Content of this advisory:
1) security vulnerability discussed:
- integer overflow
problem description
2) solution/workaround
3) standard appendix (further information)
______________________________________________________________________________
1) problem description, brief discussion
RealPlayer is a combined audio and video player for RealMedia formatted
streaming data. These formats are very common throughout the Internet.
eEye Security in October 2004 discovered a flaw in the .rm RealMovie
stream handling routines which allows a remote attacker to exploit an
integer overflow vulnerability using a special .rm file. This might
allow a remote attacker to execute code as the user running RealPlayer.
Reference URLs for this problems are the Real security advisory:
http://service.real.com/help/faq/security/040928_player/EN/
and the eEye security advisory:
http://www.eeye.com/html/research/advisories/AD20041001.html
SUSE Linux includes RealPlayer as both standalone player and as a
plugin for web browsers like Mozilla and Konqueror.
This might allow the attacker to just provide a web page or E-Mail
linking to the special exploit .rm file.
We cannot fully evaluate the impact of this problem due to lack of
information and lack of source code to review.
SUSE Linux versions up to 9.1 and the SUSE Linux Desktop 1.0
include RealPlayer version 8 and are affected by this problem.
SUSE Linux 9.2 and the Novell Linux Desktop 9 include RealPlayer
version 10 and are NOT affected by this problem.
Real does not offer a fixed version 8 RealPlayer, but suggests
upgrading RealPlayer to version 10.
However, upgrading Realplayer is not possible for older SUSE Linux
products since Realplayer 10 requires newer dynamic library
versions than the ones to be found in those products. Also some old
Real content is not compatible with the RealPlayer version 10.
For these reasons we cannot offer fixed packages for older SUSE Linux
based products.
2) solution/workaround
We suggest one of the following workarounds:
a) De-install RealPlayer
Either use YaST to deinstall RealPlayer, or as root do:
# rpm -e RealPlayer
You will lose the ability to view Real content.
b) Remove the RealPlayer plug in
As root, execute the following commands:
# rm /usr/lib/browser-plugins/raclass.zip
# rm /usr/lib/browser-plugins/rpnp.so
Content can still be viewed by starting "realplay" and opening
URLs, but automatic exploits via web pages or E-Mails are no longer
possible.
______________________________________________________________________________
3) standard appendix: authenticity verification, additional information
- Package authenticity verification:
SUSE update packages are available on many mirror ftp servers all over
the world. While this service is being considered valuable and important
to the free and open source software community, many users wish to be
sure about the origin of the package and its content before installing
the package. There are two verification methods that can be used
independently from each other to prove the authenticity of a downloaded
file or rpm package:
1) md5sums as provided in the (cryptographically signed) announcement.
2) using the internal gpg signatures of the rpm package.
1) execute the command
md5sum
after you downloaded the file from a SUSE ftp server or its mirrors.
Then, compare the resulting md5sum with the one that is listed in the
announcement. Since the announcement containing the checksums is
cryptographically signed (usually using the key security@suse.de),
the checksums show proof of the authenticity of the package.
We recommend against subscribing to security lists that cause the
e-mail message containing the announcement to be modified
so that the signature does not match after transport through the mailing
list software.
Downsides: You must be able to verify the authenticity of the
announcement in the first place. If RPM packages are being rebuilt
and a new version of a package is published on the ftp server, all
md5 sums for the files are useless.
2) rpm package signatures provide an easy way to verify the authenticity
of an rpm package. Use the command
rpm -v --checksig
to verify the signature of the package, where is the
file name of the rpm package that you have downloaded. Of course,
package authenticity verification can only target an uninstalled rpm
package file.
Prerequisites:
a) gpg is installed
b) The package is signed using a certain key. The public part of this
key must be installed by the gpg program in the directory
~/.gnupg/ under the user's home directory who performs the
signature verification (usually root). You can import the key
that is used by SUSE in rpm packages for SUSE Linux by saving
this announcement to a file ("announcement.txt") and
running the command (do "su -" to be root):
gpg --batch; gpg < announcement.txt | gpg --import
SUSE Linux distributions version 7.1 and thereafter install the
key "build@suse.de" upon installation or upgrade, provided that
the package gpg is installed. The file containing the public key
is placed at the top-level directory of the first CD (pubring.gpg)
and at ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/pubring.gpg-build.suse.de .
- SUSE runs two security mailing lists to which any interested party may
subscribe:
suse-security@suse.com
- general/linux/SUSE security discussion.
All SUSE security announcements are sent to this list.
To subscribe, send an email to
.
suse-security-announce@suse.com
- SUSE's announce-only mailing list.
Only SUSE's security announcements are sent to this list.
To subscribe, send an email to
.
For general information or the frequently asked questions (FAQ)
send mail to:
or
respectively.
=====================================================================
SUSE's security contact is or .
The public key is listed below.
=====================================================================
______________________________________________________________________________
The information in this advisory may be distributed or reproduced,
provided that the advisory is not modified in any way. In particular,
it is desired that the clear-text signature shows proof of the
authenticity of the text.
SUSE Linux AG makes no warranties of any kind whatsoever with respect
to the information contained in this security advisory.
eEye Security in October 2004 discovered a flaw in the .rm RealMovie stream handling routines which allows a remote attacker to exploit an integer overflow vulnerability using a special .rm file. This might allow a remote attacker to execute code as the user running RealPlayer.