CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2006-0005

Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Published: Feb 14, 2006 | Modified: Apr 30, 2019
CVSS 3.x
N/A
Source:
NVD
CVSS 2.x
9.3 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

Buffer overflow in the plug-in for Microsoft Windows Media Player (WMP) 9 and 10, when used in browsers other than Internet Explorer and set as the default application to handle media files, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via HTML with an EMBED element containing a long src attribute.

Weakness

The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Windows_2003_server Microsoft web_edition web_edition
Windows_server_2003 Microsoft standard_sp1 standard_sp1
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows_2000 Microsoft * *
Windows_2003_server Microsoft standard standard
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows_2000_advanced_server Microsoft sp1 sp1
Windows-nt Microsoft datacenter_server datacenter_server
Windows-nt Microsoft xp_tablet_pc xp_tablet_pc
Windows_2000 Microsoft * *
Windows_server_2003 Microsoft enterprise_sp1 enterprise_sp1
Windows_2000_advanced_server Microsoft sp3 sp3
Windows_2003_server Microsoft datacenter_edition_64-bit datacenter_edition_64-bit
Windows_2000 Microsoft * *
Windows_server_2000 Microsoft sp2 sp2
Windows_2003_server Microsoft standard_64-bit standard_64-bit
Windows_2000_advanced_server Microsoft sp4 sp4
Windows_2000 Microsoft * *
Windows_2003_server Microsoft enterprise_edition_64-bit enterprise_edition_64-bit
Windows-nt Microsoft xp_tablet_pc xp_tablet_pc
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows-nt Microsoft datacenter_server datacenter_server
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows-nt Microsoft datacenter_server datacenter_server
Windows_server_2000 Microsoft sp1 sp1
Windows-nt Microsoft xp_tablet_pc xp_tablet_pc
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows_server_2003 Microsoft web_edition_sp1 web_edition_sp1
Windows-nt Microsoft xp xp
Windows_2000_advanced_server Microsoft * *
Windows_server_2003 Microsoft datacenter_sp1 datacenter_sp1
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows_2003_server Microsoft enterprise_edition enterprise_edition
Windows_server_2000 Microsoft none none
Windows_2000_advanced_server Microsoft sp2 sp2
Windows_xp Microsoft * *
Windows-nt Microsoft datacenter_server datacenter_server
Windows_2003_server Microsoft datacenter_edition datacenter_edition
Windows-nt Microsoft datacenter_server datacenter_server
Windows_xp Microsoft - -
Windows_2000 Microsoft * *
Windows_server_2000 Microsoft sp3 sp3
Windows_2000 Microsoft - -

Extended Description

Certain languages allow direct addressing of memory locations and do not automatically ensure that these locations are valid for the memory buffer that is being referenced. This can cause read or write operations to be performed on memory locations that may be associated with other variables, data structures, or internal program data. As a result, an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code, alter the intended control flow, read sensitive information, or cause the system to crash.

Potential Mitigations

  • Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

  • For example, many languages that perform their own memory management, such as Java and Perl, are not subject to buffer overflows. Other languages, such as Ada and C#, typically provide overflow protection, but the protection can be disabled by the programmer.

  • Be wary that a language’s interface to native code may still be subject to overflows, even if the language itself is theoretically safe.

  • Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

  • Examples include the Safe C String Library (SafeStr) by Messier and Viega [REF-57], and the Strsafe.h library from Microsoft [REF-56]. These libraries provide safer versions of overflow-prone string-handling functions.

  • Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.

  • D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.

  • Consider adhering to the following rules when allocating and managing an application’s memory:

  • Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.

  • Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.

  • For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].

  • Use a CPU and operating system that offers Data Execution Protection (using hardware NX or XD bits) or the equivalent techniques that simulate this feature in software, such as PaX [REF-60] [REF-61]. These techniques ensure that any instruction executed is exclusively at a memory address that is part of the code segment.

  • For more information on these techniques see D3-PSEP (Process Segment Execution Prevention) from D3FEND [REF-1336].

References