AOL up to 9.5 Phobos.Playlist COM Object Phobos.dll Import stack-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in AOL up to 9.5. Affected is the function Import in the library Phobos.dll of the component Phobos.Playlist COM Object. Performing a manipulation results in stack-based overflow. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2010-10015. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. Furthermore, there is an exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in AOL up to 9.5. This affects the function Import in the library Phobos.dll of the component Phobos.Playlist COM Object. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a stack-based overflow vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-121. A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function). This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

AOL versions up to and including 9.5 includes an ActiveX control (Phobos.dll) that exposes a method called Import() via the Phobos.Playlist COM object. This method is vulnerable to a stack-based buffer overflow when provided with an excessively long string argument. Exploitation allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of the user, but only when the malicious HTML file is opened locally, due to the control not being marked safe for scripting or initialization. AOL remains an active and supported brand offering services like AOL Mail and AOL Desktop Gold, but the legacy AOL 9.5 desktop software—specifically the version containing the vulnerable Phobos.dll ActiveX control—is long discontinued and no longer maintained.

It is possible to read the advisory at web.archive.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2010-10015 since 08/21/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details and a public exploit are known.

The exploit is shared for download at exploit-db.com. It is declared as proof-of-concept.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Exploit-DB (11190). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• AOL

Version

• 9.0
• 9.1
• 9.2
• 9.3
• 9.4
• 9.5

License

• free

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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