###############################################################

ThreeZee Technology, Inc. Security Advisory #TZT002

###############################################################

Advisory: GameSpy Arcade Arbitrary File Writing

Discovered: July 26, 2003

Released: July 31, 2003

Risk: Critical; Allows writing of a file to any

location on the victim's system.

Author: Mike Kristovich, Security Researcher

ThreeZee Technology, Inc.

http://www.ThreeZee.com

###############################################################

Table of contents:

1) Introduction

2) The Bug

3) Details

4) Fix

5) Philosophy

6) Closing comments

_______________________________________________________________

1) Introduction

The problem exists within GSAPAK.EXE, a game update agent which

is included by default with the installation of GameSpy Arcade.

GameSpy automatically adds three mime types to the list of

accepted documents in Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator,

which are:

"application/x-gsarcade-usersvc"

"application/x-gsarcade-skinpak"

"application/x-gsarcade-launch"

By default, when a file with the extension of .APK, .arcade or

.asn is received, it will be launched by GSAPAK.exe.

_______________________________________________________________

2) The Bug

When a user receives a file with the .APK extension, it is

actually a simple ZIP file. An attacker could simply construct

a ZIP file, and change the path so that it would by extracted

into the root directory of the drive, or even the startup

directory of Windows.

Using this method, it would be quite easy to insert a virus,

trojan horse, or pretty much anything one desires, into the

victim's system.

i.e.: ../../../calc.exe - Would put it in the root directory

Because the file is considered an accepted type by browsers,

there will be no dialog asking the user to accept or deny

receiving it.

_______________________________________________________________

3) Risk

If a user were to have JavaScript enabled, the attacker could

even add "onLoad=" to an IMG tag on a web page, which would run

the file upon the image being loaded. This could have serious

consequences on Gaming Forums.

This bug does not require GameSpy Arcade to run, or ever have

run. It's possible that it has been installed along with a

game, and hasn't been touched. This does not make the user

safe. GSAPAK.exe is a separate entity in the GameSpy package,

and is useful for the purpose they've created it.

_______________________________________________________________

4) Fix

GameSpy was notified on July 28, 2003.

GameSpy responded very quickly, and they were on their way to

fixing the bug within 12 hours of the initial contact.

Directory of GameSpy Technology, David Wright, has told TZT

that this vulnerability will be fixed in a patch this week.

We'd like to thank GameSpy for their extremely fast response

and professionalism in handling this matter.

Current GameSpy Arcade users should see the patch, and be

given the option (possibly required) to update. We suggest

the latter.

If you have concerns about waiting for the patch, it can be

temporarily fixed by removing the above specified accepted

documents from the registry. You could also remove GSAPAK.exe,

or you could even choose to uninstall GameSpy Arcade until the

patch becomes available later this week.

_______________________________________________________________

5) Philosophy

GameSpy has hundreds of thousands of users, most of which are

using GameSpy Arcade and are vulnerable to this bug.

This bug has now been disclosed, and all users should patch

their system as soon as the patch is available.

Keep in mind, your system will still be vulnerable even if

you've installed GameSpy Arcade, but never ran it.

_______________________________________________________________

6) Closing comments

We would like to thank GameSpy and David Wright for their

prompt handling of the bug report, again.

_______________________________________________________________

7) Contact

Questions, comments, complaints:

Mike Kristovich, Security Researcher

ThreeZee Technology, Inc.

http://www.ThreeZee.com

zzz (at) threezee (dot) com [email concealed]

Press inquiries:

press (at) threezee (dot) com [email concealed]

[ reply ]