CVE-2015-2785

Vulnerability

The GIF encoder in Byzanz, a desktop recorder, contains an out-of-bounds heap write vulnerability when processing ByzanzRecording files. The flaw occurs during encoding of debug data into GIF images. This affects Byzanz as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Fedora 16 and 17 [1][2].

Exploitation

An attacker can trigger the vulnerability by providing a specially-crafted ByzanzRecording file to the byzanz-playback command. No authentication is required; the attacker only needs to convince a user to open the malicious file. The issue can be exploited remotely if the file is downloaded and executed [1][2].

Impact

Successful exploitation causes a crash of byzanz-playback due to heap corruption, leading to denial of service. Potentially, arbitrary code execution could be achieved with the privileges of the user running the binary [1][2].

Mitigation

The vulnerability was reported in 2012 but as of 2015 no official fix had been released. Users should avoid opening untrusted ByzanzRecording files. No fixed version is mentioned in the references [1][2].