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AOL Instant Messenger vulnerable to buffer overflow via long filename

Vulnerability Note VU#972499

Original Release Date: 2002-01-14 | Last Revised: 2002-01-14

Overview

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is an application that allows one peer to communicate with another. A vulnerability exists that can crash the client of a victim.

Description

AIM permits users to send files from one peer to another. By sending a file with a long name, it is possible to crash the client of the recipient.

Impact

By repeatedly sending this message with the file attached, a continued denial of service can be caused.

Solution

This has been resolved in AIM for Windows beta version 4.8.2540.

AIM permits the user to only accept messages from known/trusted peers. Enable this feature.

Vendor Information

972499
 

CVSS Metrics

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References

Acknowledgements

This vulnerability was discovered by Robbie Saunders.

This document was written by Jason Rafail.

Other Information

CVE IDs: None
Severity Metric: 9.45
Date Public: 2001-10-06
Date First Published: 2002-01-14
Date Last Updated: 2002-01-14 18:22 UTC
Document Revision: 9

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