TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

IBM SPSS mraboutb.dll ActiveX Control SetLicenseInfoEx Method Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-12-019: January 30th, 2012

CVE ID

CVSS Score

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

TippingPoint™ IPS Customer Protection

TippingPoint IPS customers are protected against this vulnerability by Digital Vaccine protection filter ID 11970. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

Vulnerability Details


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

The specific flaw exists within SetLicenseInfoEx() method exposed by the mraboutb.dll ActiveX Control. String data supplied to the first parameter (strInstallDir) of SetLicenseInfoEx() is copied into a 256 byte global buffer without first checking the string length. This overflow can be exploited to remotely execute arbitrary code on the target system.

Vendor Response

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

Disclosure Timeline

    2011-07-20 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2012-01-30 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Andrea Micalizzi aka rgod