Software Engineering Institute

Apple's QuickTime Player is multimedia software that allows users to view local and remote audio/video content. PictureViewer is a QuickTime component used to view still images. A lack of input validation in Apple QuickTime PictureViewer may allow a buffer overflow to occur. The overflow occurs because PictureViewer does not properly validate the size of compressed PICT data. When PictureViewer decompresses the PICT data, that data is copied to a buffer of insufficient size resulting in a buffer overflow.

For more information, please see Apple Security Update for QuickTime.

A remote attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code if they can persuade a user to access a specially crafted compressed PICT file.

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This issue is addressed in QuickTime version 7.0.3.

Do not access PICT files from untrusted sources

Exploitation occurs by accessing a specially crafted PICT file (typically .pct). By only accessing PICT files from trusted or known sources, the chances of exploitation are reduced.

Attackers may host malicious PICT files on a website. In order to convince users to visit their sites, those attackers often use URL encoding, IP address variations, long URLs, intentional misspellings, and other techniques to create misleading links. Do not click on unsolicited links received in email, instant messages, web forums, or internet relay chat (IRC) channels. Type URLs directly into the browser to avoid these misleading links. While these are generally good security practices, following these behaviors will not prevent exploitation of this vulnerability in all cases, particularly if a trusted site has been compromised or allows cross-site scripting.