MS02-032: Patch Available for WMP Active Playlist Vulnerability

The Windows Media Player Active Playlist vulnerability is a local script execution vulnerability. An attacker who can successfully exploit this vulnerability can cause HTML scripts to run as if they were run locally on the user's computer. The scripts can take any action that the user was can take, including adding, changing or deleting files or changing security settings.

This particular vulnerability is subject to a significant mitigating factor. A successful attack requires that the following specific series of actions occur in an exact order, or the attack does not work:

1. You must play a specially-formed media file from an attacker.
2. After you play the file, you must quit Windows Media Player without playing another file.
3. You must then view a Web page that was constructed by the attacker.

The vulnerability results because of a flaw in how the Windows Media active playlist information is stored on the local computer. Specifically, the playlist is stored in a fixed, known location.

The update for this problem is included in the Windows Media Player rollup package that is referenced in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this problem may cause a degree of security vulnerability in the versions of Windows Media Player that are listed earlier in this article.