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WinZip vulnerable to buffer overflow in handling of MIME archive parameters

Vulnerability Note VU#116182

Original Release Date: 2004-03-01 | Last Revised: 2004-03-01

Overview

A buffer overflow vulnerability in the WinZip program could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

Description

WinZip Computing, Inc.'s WinZip is a popular utility for creating and extracting a variety of archive file formats on Microsoft Windows-based systems. A buffer overflow error exists in the way that WinZip handles certain parameters of MIME archives.

This error results in a vulnerability when WinZip attempts to interpret invalid data in a MIME-encoded file.

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by introducing a specially-crafted file to be opened by WinZip, and then coaxing or tricking a user or application into opening it. The malicious file could be introduced in a number of ways including, but not limited to, a remote web page, an email attachment, peer-to-peer file sharing, or network filesystems.

Impact

An attacker could execute arbitrary code of their choice on a vulnerable system.

Solution

Upgrade to the latest version of the software

WinZip Computing, Inc. has released an updated version of the WinZip software that includes a fix for this vulnerability. Users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to this version of the software. More details can be found in the Systems Affected section of this document.

Vendor Information

116182
 
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WinZip Affected

Updated:  February 27, 2004

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

WinZip Computing, Inc. has released version 9.0 of the WinZip software which includes a patch for this vulnerability. Users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to this version of the software. Information about upgrading can be found at the following location:


CVSS Metrics

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References

Acknowledgements

Thanks to iDefense Security Advisory for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Chad R Dougherty based on information provided by iDefense and WinZip

Other Information

CVE IDs: None
Severity Metric: 7.70
Date Public: 2004-02-27
Date First Published: 2004-03-01
Date Last Updated: 2004-03-01 15:50 UTC
Document Revision: 13

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