Apple Mac OS X Archive Metadata Command Execution Vulnerability

Risk
High

Date Discovered
2/21/2006 12:00:00 AM

Description
Apple Mac OS X is prone to an arbitrary command execution vulnerability when processing metadata in archive files. Commands would be executed in the context of the user opening the archive file. Safari and Apple Mail can reportedly be used as exploitation vectors for this vulnerability. Mac OS X 10.4.5 is reported to be vulnerable. Earlier versions may also be affected.

Technologies Affected
Apple Mac OS X 10.4.5
Apple Mac OS X Server 10.4.5

Recommendations
Do not accept or execute files from untrusted or unknown sources.
Do not open files that originate from unknown or untrusted sources, even those considered to be of a safe file type. This will mitigate against this and other latent vulnerabilities.
Run all software as a non-privileged user with minimal access rights.
Always perform daily tasks as an unprivileged user with minimal access rights. This will limit the consequences of successful exploitation of this and other latent vulnerabilities.

Currently we are not aware of any vendor-supplied patches for this issue. If you feel we are in error or are aware of more recent information, please mail us at: vuldb@securityfocus.com

References
Source: Apple Security Updates
URL: http://www.info.apple.com/usen/security/security_updates.html

Source: MacOS X Home Page
URL: http://www.apple.com/macosx/

Credits
Discovered by Michael Lehn.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Symantec Corp.
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