Yahoo! Messenger contains buffer overflow in "IMvironment" field

Overview

Yahoo! Messenger is an instant messaging client. There is a remotely exploitable buffer overflow vulnerability in the “imv” field of Yahoo! Messenger.

Description

A remotely exploitable buffer overflow exists in the “imv” field that may permit a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system with the privileges of the current user. It is also possible to crash the Yahoo! Messenger client by overflowing the “imv” field.

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Impact

A denial of service situation is caused. However, this vulnerability is a buffer overflow, and may potentially allow the execution of arbitrary code on the local system with the privileges of the current user.

It should be noted that the attacker needs to use a custom client in order to exploit this vulnerability.

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Solution

This vulnerability was resolved in version 5,0,0,1058.

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The Yahoo! Messenger client communicates via port 5101 for peer to peer connections. Disabling the client, or blocking access to this port via a firewall may mitigate this attack.

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Vendor Information

887319

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Yahoo __ Affected

Notified: May 29, 2002 Updated: June 05, 2002

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

Upgrade to at least version 5,0,0,1058. We recommend all users upgrade to the latest release, which was 5,0,0,1066 at the time of this advisory.

Vendor Information

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

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us [email](<mailto:[email protected]?Subject=VU%23887319 Feedback>).

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

• <http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/4163&gt;
• <http://www.iss.net/security_center/static/8265.php&gt;
• <http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/257584&gt;

Acknowledgements

This vulnerablity was discovered by Scott Woodward.

This document was written by Jason Rafail.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2002-0320
CERT Advisory:	CA-2002-16 Severity Metric: