Safari Plagued by Highly Critical Vulnerability, Secunia Announces
The Apple-developed Safari web browser version 4.0.5 is plagued by a highly critical security vulnerability announced Secunia, Danish company that specializes in providing software for vulnerability management and is best known for tracking the latest security threats and offering info about patches.
It has been confirmed that the highly critical vulnerability in question affects the Windows version of Safari 4.0.5. Other versions of the browser may be affected as well. If exploited by a person with malicious intent, the vulnerability could allow for remote code execution. If someone with malicious intent sets up a special website, when the user visits said website and closes a popup window, it could lead to remote code execution.
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Here is the exact description of the vulnerability as provided by Secunia: “An error in the handling of parent windows can result in a function call using an invalid pointer. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code when a user e.g. visits a specially crafted web page and closes opened pop-up windows.”
Secunia advises users not to visit untrusted websites and not to click on links that come from untrusted sources.
According to Secunia there is a second security issue in Apple Safari; this issue could lead to exposure of sensitive information. “The security issue is caused due to Safari including HTTP basic authentication credentials in an HTTP request if a web page that requires HTTP basic authentication redirects to a different domain (e.g. via a "Location" header),” explained Secunia. This security issue has been confirmed in Safari 4.0.5 for Windows as well. It is not yet known if this security issue affects other browser versions – it is possible though.
Back in March, Cupertino-based software developer Apple rolled out version 4.0.5 of its Safari web browser. At the time of the release, Safari 4.0.5 fixed a grand total of 16 security vulnerabilities.
UPDATE MArch 12: The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has also issued an advisory on this issue (see here).
The Apple-developed Safari web browser version 4.0.5 is plagued by a highly critical security vulnerability announced Secunia, Danish company that specializes in providing software for vulnerability management and is best known for tracking the latest security threats and offering info about patches.