Pierluigi Paganini December 01, 2020

Talos experts found flaws in the WebKit browser engine that can be also exploited for remote code execution via specially crafted websites.

Cisco’s Talos team discovered security flaws in the WebKit browser engine, including flaws that can be exploited by a remote attacker to gain code execution by tricking the user into visiting a malicious website.

WebKit is a browser engine developed by Apple and primarily used in its Safari web browser, as well as all iOS web browsers. WebKit is also used by the BlackBerry Browser, PlayStation consoles beginning from the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, and a browser included with the Amazon Kindle e-book reader.

The vulnerabilities discovered by Cisco’s Talos are high-severity use-after-free issues.

“The WebKit browser engine contains multiple vulnerabilities in various functions of the software. A malicious web page code could trigger multiple use-after-free errors, which could lead to remote and arbitrary code execution.” read the Cisco Talos advisory. “An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by tricking the user into visiting a specially crafted, malicious web page on a browser utilizing WebKit.”

The issues affect WebKit’s WebSocket, AudioSourceProviderGStreamer and ImageDecoderGStreamer functionality.

Below the details of the flaws:

CVE-2020-13584 – An exploitable use-after-free vulnerability exists in WebKitGTK browser version 2.30.1 x64. An attacker could trigger a use-after-free condition by tricking the victim into visiting a specially crafted HTML web page, resulting in remote code execution.

CVE-2020-13543 – A code execution flaw resides in the WebSocket functionality of Webkit WebKitGTK 2.30.0. An attacker could trigger a use-after-free vulnerability by tricking a user into visiting a specially crafted web page, which can lead to remote code execution.

Talos researchers also published SNORT rules (Snort Rules: 55844, 55845, 56126, 56127, 56379 – 56382) for the above flaws to allow customers to detect exploitation attempts.

The developers of WebKitGTK and WPE Several vulnerabilities published a security advisory for a set of vulnerabilities (CVE-2020-13584, CVE-2020-9948, CVE-2020-9951, CVE-2020-9952, CVE-2020-9983) that reside in WebKitGTK and WPE WebKit.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, WebKit)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]