Software Engineering Institute

Yahoo! Widgets is a program for Windows that allows the user to run applications called "widgets." Yahoo! Widgets includes an ActiveX control called Yahoo! Installer Plugin for Widgets. This ActiveX control, which is provided by YDPCTL.dll, contains a stack buffer overflow in the GetComponentVersion() method.

Exploit code for this vulnerability is publicly available.

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user.

Apply an update
This issue is addressed in the July 24, 2007 Widgets Security Updates.

Disable the Yahoo! Installer Plugin for Widgets ActiveX control in Internet Explorer

The vulnerable ActiveX control can be disabled in Internet Explorer by setting the kill bit for the following CLSID:

{7EC7B6C5-25BD-4586-A641-D2ACBB6629DD}
More information about how to set the kill bit is available in Microsoft Support Document 240797. Alternatively, the following text can be saved as a .REG file and imported to set the kill bit for this control:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{7EC7B6C5-25BD-4586-A641-D2ACBB6629DD}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
Disable ActiveX

Disabling ActiveX controls in the Internet Zone (or any zone used by an attacker) appears to prevent exploitation of this and other ActiveX vulnerabilities. Instructions for disabling ActiveX in the Internet Zone can be found in the "Securing Your Web Browser" document.