Does this problem exist in Avast?

General Topics
1

Hi, I’m not sure if someone already mentioned this, but can someone tell me if the following problem exists in Avast! as well?

"Antivirus software vendor F-Secure issued a patch for a wide range of its products last Thursday after a security researcher in Luxembourg reported vulnerabilities to the company.

A flaw in the way F-Secure software handled ZIP and RAR format data compression archives could allow an attacker to execute remote code on users’ systems and to bypass F-Secure’s antivirus-scanning capabilities, according to Thierry Zoller, the security engineer and penetration tester who reported the vulnerability to F-Secure. F-Secure called the vulnerability “critical.” "

“Zoller, on his blog, praised F-Secure for publicly fixing the vulnerability. "I found multiple vulnerabilities within various [antivirus] Engines, F-Secure are the first to actually publish a real advisory, others fixed the bugs silently or put a small notice in a change_log,” he wrote.

Zoller said he will wait to publish details of the vulnerability. “There are too many [anitvirus] engines vulnerable and I am going to wait until most of them have patched the flaws until I exactly disclose my findings,” he wrote."

Here’s the link:

http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;1021392976;fp;2;fpid;1

2

Hi jujubee,

Does this problem exist in Avast?
I sure hope not!!! Hopefully someone from the Alwil team will post a reply.
3

Since no details of this vulnerability are published, it’s impossible to say for sure.
However, I am not aware of having been contacted by Mr. Zoller, so I’d guess avast! is safe.

4

Hi igor,

What’s known about this that this code execution vulnerability is wrought through specially crafted ARJ packages with long filenames that will create a buffer overflow and remote control. Kav had similar problems in October last. It seems various scanners every few months or so had archive scanning troubles, and had to launch hotfixes. Good security means to deliver no zip or rar file that should be opened by any user unless they know the specific reason it’s there and the exact source of the file. It mainly occurs where gateway installations scan web and mail traffic.

polonus