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Three Vulnerabilities Discovered in Real Player
prostoalex writes "British Next-Generation Security Software discovered three vulnerabilities in popular Real Player. A malicious attacker can execute arbitrary code by offering corrupted RealAudio stream. Real Networks posted the instructions on dealing with security flaws."
"Your band's so bad that their voices hack real player"
When the company was called Progressive Networks, they put out some of the most revolutionairy software on the Internet... software that could make decent sounding realtime talk radio streams with just 14.4kbps of modem bandwidth to work with. When 28.8kbps modems came out, they came up with a codec good enough for most FM radio stations...
.com bites the dust.
But, oh how the mighty have fallen. The RealNetworks of today stopped advancing their audio protocols long ago, and have sense been lapped by the field of other audio standards. Now, RealNetworks is more of a content company, selling "-Pass" products that create monthly fees to access streams that used to be free.
So, I guess I'm not surprised that there's a "lazy programmer" style security flaw in their products today. They stoped being a tech innovator, and have slid over into the category of a content pusher. Oh well... another
I still hate RealPlyaer. Any sort of file format that requires me to install the company's software to use I will eternally hate, regardless of who it is. I hate Real, and I hate Quicktime. I'd ask that they both die a slow miserable death, but I honestly want them both out of the way so that more open standards will take their place faster.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
"we cannot guarantee and do not warrant that the operation of any RealNetworks product will be error-free, uninterrupted or secure."
Thanks, I needed that.
"LOLOLOLO!!!!11 j00 h4v3 b33n HAC....buffering.....buffering....buffering...."
From the Real Player Knowledge Base:
To prevent maliciously formatted video streams from providing a backdoor into your system, type the video stream by hand and verify that it contains no malicious code.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Real Alternative in Media Player Classic. The version I use on XP has some flaws, but it is better than nothing, and I hope doesn't have the same flaws as the REAL Real Player?
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
The specific [buffering] were:
Exploit 1: To operate remote [buffering] from the domain of the [buffering] opened by a [buffering] file or other file.
Exploit 2: To fashion [buffering] which allow an attacker to on a user's [buffering]
Exploit 3: To fashion [buffering] create Buffer Overrun errors.
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
From the Real Player Knowledge Base:
To prevent maliciously formatted video streams from providing a backdoor into your system, type the video stream by hand and verify that it contains no malicious code.
Anybody out there who can type at 128 kbps?
I still haven't gotten past configuring my message center options in Real Player. Boxes keep popping up. I've bought the full version three times now. What's wrong?
here's an idea.
say you have just written a nice little piece of "value-adding" code, say you work at Real, say your boss likes it and would like for every Real customer to have it.
Both of you would know that a person like me keeps Real Player on my computer only for those "must have real" moments and want nothing further to do with Real.
Well, well, well, how can they get me to "upgrade" to their new "spyware" (tin foil here)? That's right - hire a 3rd party to "find" very, very nasty bugs...then claim to have THE SOLUTION!!!! Get the NEW version....with the crapware!!!
br.horyryaryyaryaryyy!!!
Then you must send 34 seconds of a certain portion of the movie 'Deliverance' over a period of 22 minutes.
These two things must be accomplished while repeatedly hitting 'alt-f4' on your keyboard, and screaming, "Damn you Real Player! Damn you to Hell!' like a woman.
Of course, if you reboot you'll have to start all over again, after a slight delay.
Um, a longer delay.
Ok, you get one shot at this, I guess. At least the exploit is consistent with their user interface.
An ActiveX wrapper in its base defintion offers no protection from this kind of flaw... in simplistic terms, ActiveX is a standard by which a controling program links up to other pre-programed objects which exist either inside a .dll file, or posibly even inside a free-standing .exe file that could possibly be run on its own... if the underlying object contains a flaw, then every other program that refers to that object will end up inheriting that flaw in the same situations, it'll be the same code making that same mistake actually running.
However, since Real Alternative is a reverse-engineered program, it's highly doubtful that they failed to check the same buffer that Real failed to check, so it's unlikely they have the same flaw in their code. If the Alternative has the same bug, then it starts to be likely they stole the code... let's hope we don't have to go there.
It appears from the press release on RealNetworks' site that the vulnerability does not affect the Mac OS X version.
Hm, once again, nothing to worry about.
I would imagine that it is not affected... perhaps this is a good time to plug it. Get it from here. Just Media Player Classic is also available.
Troll, but I'll play along.
From the second link, of all places:
"Exploit 1" affects RealOne Player, RealOne Player v2 for Windows only (all languages), RealPlayer 10 Beta (English only) and RealOne Enterprise Desktop or RealPlayer Enterprise (all versions, standalone and as configured by the RealOne Desktop Manager or RealPlayer Enterprise Manager).
"Exploit 2" affects RealOne Player, RealOne Player v2 (all language versions, all platforms), and RealOne Enterprise Desktop or RealPlayer Enterprise (all versions, standalone and as configured by the RealOne Desktop Manager or RealPlayer Enterprise Manager).
"Exploit 3" affects RealOne Player and RealPlayer 8 (all language versions).
Spyware, adware, "helpful" browser adjuncts.
Oh, wait, you mean another malicious attacker!
-- MG
Its ironic that one of the vulnerabilities is a buffer overflow.
buffering.......buffering.......buffering......
... Microsoft Monopoly.
.WMV that looks like "the default choice" for many.
The thing is that Real does not have a source of income. Thus, they need to squeeze pennies out of every possible opportunities often not playing nicely (I mean charging for crap, ads and SPAM).
At the same time, every format owner is trying to make his one a default. Not supporting Real means that their "commercial" format will die causing all contents providers switch to
It is the repetition of the browser wars.
BTW, I avoid most of their crap by using older version (revision 6.0.6) of the RealPlayer.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
Real's approach has always been to have their latest & "greatest" software running on your PC. ("greatest" software is less well tested).
So I run RealPlayer8 Basic when I need to. Their fix is to have me replace it with RealPlayer10 Gold? I don't wanna.
I also don't like having to upgrade to a newer set of local softwares simply because the "file format" has changed. There aren't that many advances in formats/compression over time, and it seems to me that: new formats are released more frequently than necessary, thus "requiring upgrades" to new readers of said formats.
(A) Patch the buggy apps you still support; don't make us install new (less well tested) software so often;
(B) Don't tie the desire to distribute your latest code to [often] unnecessary media format changes.
"I Sam thee to Dayton! (It's worse than Cleveland.)"
Hey question for you guys, I've seen a lot of negative comments about Real, most of which are understandable as I myself until recently refused to install their bloated software.
Anyone familiar with the Helix project (www.helixcommunity.org)?
From the website:
The Helix community is a collaborative effort among Real, independent developers, and leading companies to extend the Helix DNA(TM) platform, the first open multi-format platform for digital media creation, delivery and playback. The Helix DNA platform is comprised of the following:
* Helix DNA Client
* Helix DNA Producer
* Helix DNA Server
* RealAudio and RealVideo codecs
I'm not too familiar with it but is it a step in the right direction for a company that once used to be on the cutting edge of digital media and now is trying to get back in the game? Or is it just another one of their corporate blood sucking tacticts? What are your thoughts?
[alk]