Software Engineering Institute

Apple's QuickTime and Darwin Streaming Server is software which provides integrated distribution of various forms of digital content. Such content can be delivered over a network using Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) and Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).

The RTSP provides a DESCRIBE method which according to RFC 2326 "retrieves the description of a presentation or media object identified by the request URL from a server. It may use the Accept header to specify the description formats that the client understands. The server responds with a description of the requested resource. The DESCRIBE reply-response pair constitutes the media initialization phase of RTSP."

There is a vulnerability in the way the Quicktime/Darwin Streaming Server parses DESCRIBE requests containing specially crafted User-Agent fields. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a DESCRIBE request containing an overly large User-Agent field.

An unauthenticated, remote attacker could prevent legitimate users from accessing the streamed content.

Apply Patch
Apple has released a patch to address this vulnerability. For further details, please see the Apple Security Advisory (Security Update 2004-02-23).