Vulnerability in RealNetworks Helix Universal Media Server Could Allow Denial of Service

Executive Summary

Microsoft is providing notification of the discovery and remediation of a vulnerability affecting RealNetworks Helix Universal Media Server software version 14.2.0.212 and earlier. Microsoft discovered and disclosed the vulnerability under coordinated vulnerability disclosure to the affected vendor, RealNetworks. RealNetworks has remediated the vulnerability in their software.

A vulnerability exists in the way that the Helix Universal Media Server parses URLs. Clicking a link that has a malformed URL as an administrative user could cause a denial of service condition in the server process.

Microsoft Vulnerability Research reported this issue to and coordinated with RealNetworks to ensure remediation of this issue. The vulnerability has been assigned the entry, CVE-2012-1985, in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list. For more information about the vulnerability, including information about updates from RealNetworks, see the April 2, 2012 Security Update for Helix Server and Helix Mobile Server.

Mitigating Factors

• An attacker would have to leverage a cross-site request forgery (csrf) attack in order to trick the administrator into loading a malformed URL.