January 10th, 2008
CERT: AOL Radio has high-risk flaw
The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team has warned about a code execution flaw in the AOL Radio software.
I’m not sure how many folks use AOL Radio, but AOL still has a lot of eyeballs. If you’re one of those AOL users check out the CERT warning.
As for the details, CERT’s Will Dorman writes in a warning that the AOLMediaPlaybackControl application has “a stack buffer overflow, which may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.”
The vulnerability resides in an ActiveX control called AmpX. AOL Radio uses this control to stream audio on Web pages. Dorman notes:
The AOL AmpX ActiveX control, which is provided by AmpX.dll, uses a program called AOLMediaPlaybackControl.exe. The AOLMediaPlaybackControl application contains a stack buffer overflow that is exploitable via the AmpX ActiveX control’s AppendFileToPlayList() method.
On the bright side, AOL has fixed the vulnerability in what Dorman calls “an unspecified automatic update.” The upshot: If you use AOL Radio make sure you have the AmpX ActiveX control version 2.6.2.6. Alternatively, you can disable the AmpX ActiveX control in Internet Explorer.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
