search menu icon-carat-right cmu-wordmark

CERT Coordination Center

AOL Instant Messenger vulnerable to DoS via crafted WAV file

Vulnerability Note VU#990451

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 allows users to send audio files to one another. By sending a corrupt WAV formatted file, an attacker can cause the victims client to crash.

Impact

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

Solution

Upgrade your client. This has been fixed in version 4.8.2540 beta.

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

Vendor Information

990451
 

CVSS Metrics

Group Score Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

Acknowledgements

This vulnerability was discovered by Robbie Saunders.

This document was written by Jason Rafail.

Other Information

CVE IDs: None
Severity Metric: 8.51
Date Public: 2001-10-06
Date First Published: 2002-01-14
Date Last Updated: 2002-01-14 18:25 UTC
Document Revision: 8

Sponsored by CISA.