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Firm Says Steam URLs Exploitable

[Oct 17, 2012, 10:56 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Startup vulnerability research and consultancy firm ReVuln says the way Steam handles steam:// protocol URLs leaves users open to having vulnerabilities in Steam and their game exploited, reports Computerworld, who say their request for comment on this was not immediately fulfilled by Valve (thanks Ant). A proof-of-concept trailer shows what they are talking about, and here's a bit:

According to tests performed by the ReVuln researchers, Internet Explorer 9, Google Chrome and Opera display warnings and the full or partial steam:// URLs before passing them to the Steam client for execution. Firefox also requests user confirmation, but doesn't display the URL and provides no warning, while Safari automatically executes steam:// URLs without user confirmation, the researchers said.

"All the browsers that execute external URL handlers directly without warnings and those based on the Mozilla engine (like Firefox and SeaMonkey) are a perfect vector to perform silent Steam Browser Protocol calls," the researchers said. "Additionally for browsers like Internet Explorer and Opera it's still possible to hide the dodgy part of the URL from being shown in the warning message by adding several spaces into the steam:// URL itself."

Aside from tricking users to manually click on rogue steam:// URLs, attackers can use JavaScript code loaded on malicious pages to redirect browsers to such URLs, Luigi Auriemma said Tuesday via email.

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Re: Firm Says Steam URLs Exploitable

Oct 17, 2012, 11:39

Verno

The Steam client also has a webkit engine, so you could redirect it to places with a payload or etc. You could also have the client perform various built in commands like uninstalling or etc. I think it's more of an issue for browsers, they should all be asking for user confirmation when you click an external protocol link.

Also:

For example, the Steam protocol's "retailinstall" command can be used to load a malformed TGA splash image file that exploits a vulnerability in the Steam client to execute malicious code in the context of its process, the researchers said.

that sort of thing.




Playing: Faster Than Light, Tales of Graces F, Fire Emblem 3DS Watching: Ghost in the Shell, Hannibal, Oblivion

Subject

Comment [quote="Verno"Oct 17, 2012, 11:39]The Steam client also has a webkit engine, so you could redirect it to places with a payload or etc. You could also have the client perform various built in commands like uninstalling or etc. I think it's more of an issue for browsers, they should all be asking for user confirmation when you click an external protocol link. Also: q[For example, the Steam protocol's "retailinstall" command can be used to load a malformed TGA splash image file that exploits a vulnerability in the Steam client to execute malicious code in the context of its process, the researchers said.]q that sort of thing. [/quote]

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