WinRar Bug to be Worried 🐞
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A new weakness has been disclosed in the WinRAR archiver utility for Windows that could be abused by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on targeted systems.
Tracked as CVE-2021-35052, the bug impacts the trial version of the software running version 5.70. This vulnerability allows an attacker to intercept and modify requests sent to the user of the application.This can be used to achieve RCE on a victim’s computer.
A JavaScript error rendered by MSHTML, a proprietary browser engine for the now discontinued Internet Explorer and which is used in Office to render web content inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, leading to the discovery that the error window is displayed once every three times when the application is launched post the expiry of the trial.
By intercepting the response code sent when WinRAR alerts the user about the end of the free trial period via “notifier.rarlab[.]com” and modifying it to a “301 Moved Permanently” redirect message,could be abused to cache the redirection to an attacker controlled malicious domain for all subsequent requests.
An attacker already having access to the same network domain can stage ARP spoofing attacks to remotely launch applications, retrieve local host information, and even run arbitrary code.
One of the biggest challenges an organization faces is the management of third-party software. Once installed, third-party software has access to read, write, and modify data on devices which access corporate networks.
It’s impossible to audit every application that could be installed by a user and so policy is critical to managing the risk associated with external applications and balancing this risk against the business need for a variety of applications. Improper management can have wide reaching consequences.
