Hack challenge's QuickTime bug puts all browsers at risk

Computerworld - The QuickTime vulnerability that first surfaced last Friday in a Mac hack challenge is "very serious" and can be exploited through any Java-enabled browser, including Internet Explorer 7 running on both Windows XP and Vista, the company that laid out the contest's $10,000 prize said today.

Unconfirmed reports also claimed that someone may have captured the exploit on Friday as the MacBook Pro was attacked. If that turns out to be the case, a widespread attack would be more likely.

Although the bug was first ascribed to Apple Inc.'s Safari Web browser, by Monday researchers at 3com TippingPoint -- which put up the prize money as part of its Zero Day Initiative bug bounty program -- had confirmed the vulnerability was in QuickTime, Apple's media player.

Because the flaw is in QuickTime's code, and because QuickTime plug-ins are commonly installed on both Macs and PCs, and in not only Safari, but also Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox and Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer (IE), the attack surface is "huge," said Terri Forslof, TippingPoint's manager of security research.

"This is every bit as dangerous as any vulnerability we see out there," said Forslof, who confirmed today that using IE 6 and IE 7 on Windows XP SP2, as well as IE 7 on Vista, could lead to an exploit. "If Microsoft was rating this, it would [rate it as] a critical vulnerability. One click and you're owned."

"The vulnerability is in QuickTime, but any Java-enabled browser can be an exploit vector. No exclusions," said Forslof. TippingPoint confirmed this morning that IE 7 running on Vista -- the browser that Microsoft touts as its most secure -- could be a route to a PC hijack.

A successful exploit would require that the user be tricked into visiting a Web site containing malicious Java code. That kind of attack is commonplace, with links typically delivered via spammed e-mail. Until Apple patches QuickTime, the only sure defense, said Forslof, is to disable Java in the browser.

Late this morning, researchers at Matasano Security LLC, the New York-based consultancy where the MacBook contest winner, Dino Di Zovie, once worked, said it had unconfirmed reports from credible sources that the exploit had been snatched out of the air at the CanSecWest conference.

The MacBooks left open to attack during the CanSecWest challenge were connected to an unprotected wireless network, said Matasano's Thomas Ptacek in a blog this morning. "Raw packet captures of the successful exploit have been taken by parties unknown," he said. "There's a difference between the exploit being captured and the exploit being successfully hosted by attackers in the wild....[but even so, this is a particularly virulent problem."