SecuriTeam has interviewed Ilfak Guilfanov, the author of the temporary patch for the Windows Metafile vulnerability.
[b]Now let’s discuss some of the details of the Windows Metafile vulnerability. There has been a lot of conflicting information about the details of the flaw. Could you just describe the vulnerability for us so that people understand what the issue is?[/b]
Yes, there is some confusion about the vulnerability. To speak simply, it is possible to get infected just by browsing the internet.
A specially-crafted WMF file can take full control of your computer. In fact, a WMF file is not an ordinary graphic file. It looks more like a program rather than a data file, because it consists of a sequence of commands for Windows.
Most are commands like ‘draw a blue line’, ‘fill a rectangle with red’, and so on.
There is one very powerful command code in WMF files. This command code means ‘if something wrong happens, do the following: …’. So the creator of the WMF file can make your computer do anything he/she wants by using this command code and deliberately creating an error condition afterward.
Source: SecuriTeam Blog
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