Vulnerability Note VU#680540

ICQ 7 fails to verify the origin of software updates

Overview

ICQ 7 does not verify the origin of automatic updates which may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.

I. Description

According to ICQ's website: "ICQ, the pioneer of Instant Messaging (IM), now offers the optimal integration between Instant Messaging and Social Networks with the newest ICQ version – the Social Messaging tool that can be downloaded free of charge at www.icq.com." ICQ 7 checks for updates on start-up but does not verify the origin of updates through digital signatures or other means. An attacker who can successfully spoof update.icq.com using a man-in-the-middle attack, DNS poisoning, or some other means can cause the client to download a malicious software update.

II. Impact

By successfully spoofing the update site, an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user.

III. Solution

We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem.

Vendor Information

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Digital Sky Technologies	Affected		2011-01-13

References

Credit

Thanks to Daniel Seither for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Michael Orlando.

Other Information

Date Public:	2011-01-13
Date First Published:	2011-01-13
Date Last Updated:	2011-01-13
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):
NVD-ID(s):
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Severity Metric:	13.16
Document Revision:	13