Software Engineering Institute

PICT is a graphics file format that was used by Apple Macintosh systems prior to OS X as their standard metafile format. OS X systems can open and display PICT files.

Apple QuickTime contains a heap buffer overflow vulnerability. This vulnerability may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running QuickTime. By convincing a user to open a specially crafted PICT file with QuickTime, an attacker can trigger the overflow.

Apple iTunes includes the QuickTime player.

Note that this vulnerability may be present in QuickTime versions prior to 7.1.5 running on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

A remote, unauthenticated attacker can execute arbitrary code or create a denial-of-service condition. The crafted QuickTime PICT file may be supplied on a web page, in an email for the victim to select, or by some other means designed to encourage them to invoke QuickTime on the exploit file.

Update
Apple has released QuickTime 7.5 to address this issue.

Do not allow browsers to open QuickTime automatically

Until updates can be applied, do not allow your web browser to open files associated with QuickTime automatically. Consult your web browser's documentation or the references section of this document for more information.

Do not open multimedia files from untrusted sources

Do not open multimedia files that are from untrusted or unknown sources. For more information, please see Using Caution with Email Attachments.

Limit privileges

Running QuickTime with reduced privileges may help mitigate the effects of this vulnerability. Users with administrator access can run QuickTime with reduced privileges by following the instructions in Microsoft knowledgebase article 294676.