Software Engineering Institute

RealNetworks RealPlayer

RealNetworks RealPlayer is a multimedia application that allows users to view local and remote audio/video content.

SWF File format

The SWF file format is used by Macromedia Flash multimedia files. See the Macromedia File Format Specification FAQ for more information on the SWF file format.

The Problem

Numerous RealNetworks products fail to properly validate SWF files allowing a buffer overflow to occur. By persuading a user to access a specially crafted SWF file with RealPlayer, a remote attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code.

Considerations

A complete list of affected software is available in the RealNetwork Security Update for March 2006.

By convincing a user to open a specially crafted SWF file with RealPlayer, a remote unauthenticated attacker can execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

Patch RealPlayer

Apply the patches supplied in the RealNetwork Security Update for March 2006.

Disable RealPlayer in your web browser

An attacker may be able to exploit this vulnerability by embedding the crafted SWF file in a webpage and convincing a user to access that page. Disabling RealPlayer in the web browser will eliminate this attack vector thereby reducing the chances of exploitation.

To disable RealPlayer in Microsoft Internet Explorer,disable the RealPlayer ActiveX control. In other web browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, disable the RealPlayer plugin.