Eudora users warned over 'reply to all' trick

girlgeek · 11-11-2003

By John Leyden
Posted: 11/11/2003 at 13:57 GMT

A buffer overflow vulnerability in Eudora, the popular email client, creates a mechanism for crackers to compromise targeted PCs.

The problem stems from a failure to properly verify the "From:" and "Reply-To:" when users of vulnerable versions of Eudora select "Reply-To-All". This shortcoming creates a means for hackers to spam users with a maliciously constructed email designed to trigger this buffer overflow condition.

In practice it might be hard to trick users into selecting "Reply-To-All" in response to suspicious emails. But if they do then crackers would be able to run arbitrary code on vulnerable systems, so the problem is not to be sniffed at.

The vulnerability was discovered in Eudora version 5.x by Japanese security researcher Hisayuki Shinmachi of Secure Net Services in January and announced yesterday. Users are advised to update to Eudora 5.1-Jr3 (Japanese) or Eudora 6.0 (English) in order to shore up their security defences, as explained in an advisory by Secunia here.

Although Eudora security problems are not unprecedented, the package is far less afflicted with security issues than Microsoft's email client, known in these parts as Lookout.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/33921.html

slavdogg · 11-12-2003

thats the first Eudora security issues i've ever heard of in my many years of Eudoring, but i always uppgrade

thanks girlgeek

girlgeek · 11-12-2003

Quote:

Originally posted by slavdogg@Nov 11 2003, 11:39 PM
thats the first Eudora security issues i've ever heard of in my many years of Eudoring, but i always uppgrade

thanks girlgeek

No problem, Slavdogg. There were actually a couple this year, but nothing like Microsoft's Outlook. As long as you're always running the latest version and have any patches that become available, you have nothing to worry about.

MikeFold · 11-12-2003

same here.....gotta love eudora

Everytime I get a new machine, I replace one of the others (home, 2nd office etc...) and never update those, just the main machine.
I still occasionally check mail from one of the older machines.

(i think one still has V.3 on it)

Thanks for the update.

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11-11-2003	#1
girlgeek Members Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 266	By John Leyden Posted: 11/11/2003 at 13:57 GMT A buffer overflow vulnerability in Eudora, the popular email client, creates a mechanism for crackers to compromise targeted PCs. The problem stems from a failure to properly verify the "From:" and "Reply-To:" when users of vulnerable versions of Eudora select "Reply-To-All". This shortcoming creates a means for hackers to spam users with a maliciously constructed email designed to trigger this buffer overflow condition. In practice it might be hard to trick users into selecting "Reply-To-All" in response to suspicious emails. But if they do then crackers would be able to run arbitrary code on vulnerable systems, so the problem is not to be sniffed at. The vulnerability was discovered in Eudora version 5.x by Japanese security researcher Hisayuki Shinmachi of Secure Net Services in January and announced yesterday. Users are advised to update to Eudora 5.1-Jr3 (Japanese) or Eudora 6.0 (English) in order to shore up their security defences, as explained in an advisory by Secunia here. Although Eudora security problems are not unprecedented, the package is far less afflicted with security issues than Microsoft's email client, known in these parts as Lookout. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/33921.html

11-12-2003	#4
MikeFold Members Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 325	same here.....gotta love eudora Everytime I get a new machine, I replace one of the others (home, 2nd office etc...) and never update those, just the main machine. I still occasionally check mail from one of the older machines. (i think one still has V.3 on it) Thanks for the update.