Hacker Cracks Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7
Despite the security measures included in Windows 7, two security researchers were able to defeat the security provided to users running Internet Explorer 8 on top of Microsoft's latest operating system.
March 25, 2010
Despite the security measures included in Windows 7, two security researchers were able to defeat the security provided to users running Internet Explorer 8 on top of Microsoft's latest operating system.The researchers managed to surf their way through Windows 7's Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) anti-hacking defenses on a completely up-to-date and fully patched 64-bit version of Windows 7 running IE8.
If you find that news sobering, consider how (relatively) quickly the Dutch hacker, Peter Vreugdenhil, was able to develop a working exploit. From Ryan Naraine at the Threatpost blog:
"I started with a bypass for ALSR which gave me the base address for one of the modules loaded into IE. I used that knowledge to do the DEP bypass," he added.
Vreugdenhil, who won a ,000 cash prize and a new Windows machine, said he uses fuzzing techniques to find software vulnerabilities. "I specifically looking through my fuzzing logs for a bug like this because I could use it to do the ASLR bypass, he said.
After finding the IE 8 vulnerability, Vreugdenhil said it took about two weeks to write an exploit to get around the ASLR+DEP mitigations.
"Fuzzing" techniques include using tools that throw random data (essentially junk) at software inputs to see what happens.
Vreugdenhil published a brief paper [.PDF] explaining how he bypassed both ASLR and DEP.
The demonstration took place at the CanSecWest Vancouver security conference, underway now. It's part of a contest funded by intrusion-prevention provider Tipping Point. More than $100,000 in prizes are earmarked for hackers who can break into leading Internet browsers and mobile platforms for the iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, and Andriod.
IE 8 running on Windows 7 wasn't the only browser to fall at the conference so far. The iPhone, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox also fell to exploits designed to take advantage of zero-day vulnerabilities in all of those systems.
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