CVE-2010-0059 in Mac OS X
Summary
by MITRE
CoreAudio in Apple Mac OS X before 10.6.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) via crafted audio content with QDM2 encoding, which triggers a buffer overflow due to inconsistent length fields, related to QDCA.
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/03/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-0059 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within Apple Mac OS X CoreAudio framework affecting versions prior to 10.6.3. This security weakness specifically targets the handling of QDM2 encoded audio content, which is a proprietary audio compression format developed by Microsoft. The vulnerability stems from inconsistent length field handling during the processing of audio data structures, creating conditions where maliciously crafted audio files can trigger memory corruption within the audio processing pipeline.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the QDM2 decoder within CoreAudio, where the application fails to properly validate the length fields in the audio data structure before attempting to allocate memory for processing. When a malformed QDM2 file is processed, the inconsistent length fields cause the decoder to allocate insufficient memory for the actual data payload, leading to a classic buffer overflow condition. This memory corruption occurs in the kernel-level audio processing components, specifically within the QDCA (QDM2 Decoder Audio) subsystem that handles the decoding of Microsoft's QDM2 compressed audio format.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple denial of service to potentially enable remote code execution, making it particularly dangerous for systems that process untrusted audio content. Attackers can craft malicious audio files that, when played or even when simply opened by a media application, trigger the buffer overflow condition. The memory corruption can result in application crashes, system instability, or in more severe cases, allow attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the affected process. This vulnerability affects not only end-user applications but also system-level audio processing components that may be invoked by various applications, increasing the attack surface significantly.
From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with the ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and script injection. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal user interaction, as simply opening or playing the malicious audio file can trigger the exploit, making it particularly dangerous in environments where users may encounter untrusted audio content. The attack vector is classified as remote due to the potential for exploitation through network-delivered audio content, and the vulnerability affects the core audio processing infrastructure, making it difficult to isolate and protect against through traditional application-level sandboxing measures.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected systems to the recommended Mac OS X 10.6.3 or later versions where Apple has implemented proper bounds checking and validation of length fields in the QDM2 decoder. System administrators should also implement content filtering measures to prevent processing of unknown or untrusted audio formats, particularly those that may trigger the vulnerable decoder components. Network-level protections such as deep packet inspection to identify and block QDM2 encoded content in network traffic can provide additional defense-in-depth measures. The vulnerability underscores the importance of proper input validation in multimedia processing components and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing of audio and video codecs in operating system frameworks.