Apple has reversed course and patched a bug in its Safari browser after security researchers showed how it could be used to run unauthorized software on a Windows machine. The "carpet bomb" bug , which was originally discovered by security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, was initially thought to be less serious than it turned out to be. Dhanjani showed how Safari could be misused to litter a victim's desktop with downloaded programs, but two weeks after he disclosed his research, another hacker, named Aviv Raff, showed that this flaw could be exploited in tandem with other problems in Windows and Internet Explorer to run unauthorized software on a victim's PC. That prompted Microsoft to issue its own warning about the issue. It also caused some security experts to caution Web surfers about using Safari on the Windows platform.
View: The full story @ InfoWorld
Looks like Apple patched their side (after claiming they would not - which I thought was stubbornly thick-headed of them). Glad they took the problem seriously.
I could not identify the specific item in the secunia listing, but I have not heard news of Microsoft fixing their half of the problem yet.
Wouldn't 'fixing' that break things?
Wouldn't 'fixing' that break things?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682586.aspx
It will only search "Desktop" for the few apps that are installed/shortcut(?) on the desktop, that leaves... ummm.. IE and Outlook, I believe. But only if started from the desktop, not the start menu, hotkey, or application link or such.
So, sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Sounds kind of broken to me already.
Under XP, isn't the desktop part of your PATH?
Under XP, isn't the desktop part of your PATH?
Under XP, isn't the desktop part of your PATH?
I believe so.
Under XP, isn't the desktop part of your PATH?
I believe so.
Ah, bits explained it. It's that the startup folder OVERRIDES the Path.
Ah, bits explained it. It's that the startup folder OVERRIDES the Path.
The folder the shortcut resides in shouldn't be classified as the startup folder, the folder where the EXE resides in should be classified as startup folder.
IE (actually, any app) should look in it's own folder, system folders, etc., not just any random folder where people create a shortcut to it.
For heavens sake, it had NOTHING to do with Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer was just used to demonstrate the way that Windows uses the desktop amongst other folders to substitute DLLs used by any and all Windows software. They just used Internet Explorer to demonstrate it, Internet Explorer itself was not at fault.
For heavens sake, it had NOTHING to do with Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer was just used to demonstrate the way that Windows uses the desktop amongst other folders to substitute DLLs used by any and all Windows software. They just used Internet Explorer to demonstrate it, Internet Explorer itself was not at fault.
The start in folder is where you executed the app from (eg its home dir) or if a shortcut it'll include the folder the shortcut is in or if the start in folder is specified it'll use that aswell.
The Desktop is simply a folder, if you have a shortcut or any application application in that folder, the first thing it'll do is find dll's it can link to in that folder.
That's how Windows has worked for a very long time.
It's not an IE issue at all, that's just Windows. It's not a flaw, it's just something to be aware of(you also should not have any binary in this folder, it really is just for shortcuts!). The problem was 100% with Safari allowing unwanted code to be put on the harddrive and by default to a very stupid place.
Last edited by bits on 21 Jun 2008 - 03:52
Some people like to turn every patch into an "I hate ____" rant.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1319
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