IBM Lotus Notes ZIP file handling buffer overflow

Overview

IBM Lotus Notes contains a buffer overflow when handling a ZIP file with a large file name. This could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

Description

IBM Lotus Notes is an integrated client application that provides functionality including email, calendar, instant messaging, and collaboration. Notes has the ability to extract ZIP archive files. The method for extracting ZIP files contains a buffer overflow vulnerability. The vulnerable code is executed when a user clicks the View option after selecting a ZIP file.

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Impact

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted ZIP file, a remote attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

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Solution

Upgrade

IBM has released Notes 6.5.5 and Notes 7.0.1 to address this vulnerability.

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IBM provides the following workarounds in Technote 1229918:

To work around these issues in previous releases of Notes, the affected file viewers can be disabled. The buffer overflow vulnerabilities affect the following files: kvarce.dll, uudrdr.dll, tarrdr.dll and htmsr.dll. The directory traversal vulnerability affects the kvarce.dll file.

There are three options for disabling these viewers:

1. Action: Delete the keyview.ini file in the Notes program directory.
Results: When a user clicks View (for any file), a dialog box will be displayed with the message "Unable to locate the viewer configuration file."

2. Action: Delete the problem files (ziprdr.dll, uudrdr.dll, htmsr.dll, tarrdr.dll).
Result: When a user tries to view the specific file types (html pages, zip/tar/uud archives), a dialog box will be displayed with the message "The viewer display window could not be initialized." All other file types work without returning the error message.

3. Action: Comment out specific lines in keyview.ini (by preceding the line with an asterisk * ) for any references to the problem files (dlls). For example:
[KVARCVE]
* 132=ziprdr.dll
* 194=tarrdr.dll
* 167=uudrdr.dll

[KVDOCVE]
2=afsr.dll
-1=hexsr.dll
117=mifsr.dll
13=dcasr.dll
32=dw4sr.dll
23=exesr.dll
153=afsr.dll
207=mimesr.dll
208=mimesr.dll
*210=htmsr.dll
*251=htmsr.dll

Result: When a user tries to view the specific file types (html files, tar/uud archives), a dialog box will be displayed with the message "The viewer display window could not be initialized."

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Vendor Information

884076

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IBM Corporation __ Affected

Updated: February 15, 2006

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

Please see IBM Technote 1229918.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us [email](<mailto:[email protected]?Subject=VU%23884076 Feedback>).

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

• <http://secunia.com/secunia_research/2005-37/advisory/&gt;
• http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=475&uid=swg21229918
• <http://secunia.com/advisories/16280/&gt;

Acknowledgements

This vulnerability was disclosed by IBM, who in turn credit Secunia with reporting the vulnerability.

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2005-2618
Severity Metric:	6.69 Date Public: