Latest Version of WinRAR Plagued by Dangerous Security Bug

[frogboy]

Content source

http://news.softpedia.com/news/latest-version-of-winrar-is-plagued-by-a-dangerous-security-bug-493158.shtml

WinRAR 5.21 affected by remote code execution vulnerability

WinRAR, the popular file compression and decompression utility, has a security vulnerability that allows attackers to remotely execute code on the user's computer when opening an SFX (Self-extracting archive) file.
The bug was discovered by Mohammad Reza Espargham from Vulnerability Lab, and was also reproduced by Pieter Arntz from Malwarebytes.
According to the vulnerability disclosure details, the bug only affects the latest version, 5.21, and can be used by any attacker crafty enough to place malicious HTML code inside the "Text to display in SFX window" section when creating a new SFX file.
After sending the archive to a victim, whenever the file is launched, the malicious code is executed as well, and depending on the attacker's skill, it could lead to system, network or device compromise.
To exploit this vulnerability, attackers don't need special privileges on the targeted machine.

Full article. Latest Version of WinRAR Plagued by Dangerous Security Bug

 

[darko999]

Lucky me on the 7z side of compression

 

[XhenEd]

All other things being equal, HMP.A and MBAE can defeat this exploit, right?

 

[Rod McCarthy]

I just switched over to ashampoo zip pro three months ago

 

[frogboy]

I am a fan of Bandizip myself.

 

[Sr. Normal]

I am a fan of Bandizip myself.

Me too

 

[LabZero]

So I move to Bandzip

 

[Enju]

Executable files can contain malware? Never expected that!
Everyone switching to other software isn't getting any additional security since this exploit is based on the self extracting archives of Winrar which are .exe files. It doesn't even matter if Winrar fixes this bug or not because this version has already gotten into circulation.

 

[Kantry123]

sweet Lord
i've shifted to 7zip from past few years..

ALSO recent Igor has added support for RAR5 ...That was the only extra feature winRAR was having ...so now no need to go back ti winrara aymore

regards

 

[Solarlynx]

I stay with WinRar 5.21 and don't care about this exploit. Anyway I don't run any SFX from any archivers on my PC. Moreover I believe the exploit can be stopped by HIPS and FW if they properly tuned.

Then as I see you don't need WinRar at all to run this SFX. It's the hacker needs WinRar to create malicious SFX. So if you have WinRar you are not insecure. You are insecure if you ran this malicious SFX file what is actually true for all other archivers.

Cheers!