Exploit posted for Microsoft JPEG flaw

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September 22, 2004 (IDG News Service) -- Computer code that takes advantage of a flaw in the way many Microsoft Corp. applications process JPEG images has been published on the Internet and could be a precursor to actual attacks on vulnerable PCs, experts said.
The code was published late last week, only days after Microsoft revealed the "critical" vulnerability and made patches available to fix the problem (see story). A wide range of Microsoft software that processes JPEG images, including versions of its Windows and Office products, is vulnerable.
So far, only "proof-of-concept" code that can cause a vulnerable Web browser to crash or a PC to freeze has been published. A fully developed exploit would allow an attacker to take control of a victim's computer by remotely opening a command prompt or downloading and running malicious software, one expert said yesterday.
"Typically, a proof of concept is a first step toward a full-blown exploit," said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer at the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center. "It is an indication that people are playing with it and experimenting to try and get it to work for other purposes, typically to open a remote shell or download and execute code."
Microsoft is aware of the exploit code and is investigating the matter, a company spokeswoman said. "Microsoft's early investigation of this code indicates that it can cause a computer that does not have [the patches] installed to stop responding, but it does not execute code remotely," she said.
Microsoft is urging all customers to immediately install the software updates it made available with Security Bulletin MS04-028. Customers who are still testing the patches should implement the work-around steps outlined in the bulletin, the software maker said.

The pattern to exploitation of the JPEG vulnerability isn't much different from with other vulnerabilities, according to the Internet Storm Center. Typically, proof-of-concept code is published a few days after details of the flaw are released, followed by a hunt to fully exploit the flaw. A worm or mass mailer is likely to surface by the end of the month, according to the organization's Web site.
While the race is on to create malicious code and there seems to be a real possibility for large-scale exploitation of the JPEG processing weakness, Ullrich hopes that won't happen.
"One thing that makes me think that this may not be this big is that these image format vulnerabilities, there are literally dozens of them, and for whatever reason they have not been widely exploited in the past," he said.
To take advantage of the flaw, an attacker would have to persuade a user to open a specially crafted image file. The image could

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