Apple Safari WebKit PCRE Handling Integer Overflow Vulnerability

April 16th, 2008
ZDI-08-022 ZDI-CAN-303

CVE ID

CVE-2008-1026

CVSS Score

None None

Affected Vendors

Apple

Affected Products

Safari

Vulnerability Details

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

The specific flaw exists in the regular expression compiler (JavaScriptCore/pcre/pcre_compile.cpp) in WebKit. When nesting regular expressions with large repetitions, a heap overflow occurs resulting in a condition allowing the execution of arbitrary code.

Additional Details

Apple has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1467

Disclosure Timeline

  • 2008-03-27 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
  • 2008-04-16 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff and Mark Daniel

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