TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

Skype Protocol Handler datapath Argument Injection Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-10-027: March 11th, 2010

CVSS Score

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

TippingPoint™ IPS Customer Protection

TippingPoint IPS customers are protected against this vulnerability by Digital Vaccine protection filter ID 8328. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Skype. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page.

The specific flaw exists with how the OS web-browser passes command line arguments to Skype through the registered 'skype:' protocol handler. Insufficient sanity checking to the /datapath argument allows an attacker to construct a link that will execute Skype with arbitrary arguments. This can be abused to specify a remote configuration storage directory which can be leveraged to glean target user credentials.

Vendor Response

Skype has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:

Disclosure Timeline

    2009-07-14 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2010-03-11 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Anonymous