Apple patches (CanSecWest) QuickTime hole
Apple has released QuickTime 7.1.6 to patch the code execution hole discovered by Dino Dai Zovi and exposed during the CanSecWest MacBook hijack contest.
The fix comes less than two weeks after the security conference in Vancouver where Dai Zovi teamed up with hacker Shane Macaulay to take control of a 15-inch MacBook Pro machine.
The QuickTime update is available for Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.9, Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 SP4.
Apple described the flaw as an implementation issue in QuickTime for Java that may allow reading or writing out of the bounds of the allocated heap.
By enticing a user to visit a web page containing a maliciously crafted Java applet, an attacker can trigger the issue which may lead to arbitrary code execution.
The new version of QuickTime will perform additional bounds checking when creating QTPointerRef objects.
Dai Zovi and TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative, the company that bought the rights to the flaw information, are prominently credited in Apple's advisory.
Separately, Apple re-released its Security Update 2007-004 to correct two problems that cropped up in AirPort and FTP Server.