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by nine_k 2 hours ago
TrueType and OpenType fonts include code executed by a VM to even render them. This wasn't a viable source of attacks so far, due to the properly limited nature of the VMs.

Maybe I would pick the eBPF VM instead, with all its limiting and verifying mechanics.

2 comments

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/SecurityB...

> This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted document or visits a malicious Web page that embeds TrueType font files.

> This security update is rated Critical for all supported releases of Microsoft Windows. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

> The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way that a Windows kernel-mode driver handles TrueType font files. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

There are many documented, exploited-in-the-wild font-file attacks (one example in 1]). Apple is re-writing their font interpreter specifically to improve security. [2]

[1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/facebook-disc...

[2] https://blakecrosley.com/blog/truetype-hinting-swift-migrati...