Friday, August 6, 2004
Six Security Vulnerabilities Found In PNG Graphic Format
Posted by Kent Pribbernow in "NEWS" @ 09:00 AM
"Six vulnerabilities in an open-source image format could allow intruders to compromise computers running Linux and may allow attacks against Windows PCs as well as Macs running OS X. The security issues appear in a library supporting the portable network graphics (PNG) format, used widely by programs such as the Mozilla and Opera browsers and various e-mail clients. The most critical issue, a memory problem known as a buffer overflow, could allow specially created PNG graphics to execute a malicious program when the application loads the image."
This is rather disturbing news as PNG is one of the most popular graphics formats used on the web. Some web graphics design software like Macromedia Fireworks MX (a product that I use every day in my work 8O ) uses PNG as its native file format. The vulnerability could allow hackers to create malicious image files that web browsers would unwittingly download and execute, allowing the intruders access to your vital data.
Isn't the internet fun? :wink:
This is rather disturbing news as PNG is one of the most popular graphics formats used on the web. Some web graphics design software like Macromedia Fireworks MX (a product that I use every day in my work 8O ) uses PNG as its native file format. The vulnerability could allow hackers to create malicious image files that web browsers would unwittingly download and execute, allowing the intruders access to your vital data.
Isn't the internet fun? :wink:
