# MA-190.082009: MyCERT Alert - Critical Vulnerabilities in Libpurple (Pidgin & Adium)

**Date:** 21 Aug 2009  
**Source:** https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-190.082009  
**Advisory ID:** MA-190.082009

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**1.0 Introduction**
A critical vulnerability has been reported in libpurple, which can be exploited by malicious people to potentially compromise a user's system. The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the "msn\_slplink\_process\_msg()" function when processing MSN SLP messages and can be exploited to corrupt memory.
**2.0 Impact**
By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Pidgin or Adium and gain the same privilege as the user.
**3.0 Affected Products**
Products listed below are vulnerable to this vulnerability:
- Libpurple 2.5.8 and earlier version
- Pidgin 2.5.8 and earlier version
- Adium 1.3.5 and earlier version
**4.0 Recommendation**
MyCERT recommends users of these vulnerable applications to update the libpurple to version 2.5.9. The easiest way to perform the update is by updating the application itself. For Pidgin 2.5.8 and earlier versions, please upgrade to the newest version 2.5.9 by downloading it from the following URL: [http://www.pidgin.im](http://www.pidgin.im/)
While for Adium, users can update to the newest version 1.3.6 by downloading it from the following link: [http://www.adium.im](http://www.adium.im/)
MyCERT generally advise users of this product to keep themselves updated with the latest security announcements by the vendor. MyCERT can be reached at information below:
**E-mail :** [[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7b1602181e090f3b1602181e090f5514091c551602)
**Phone :** +603 89926969 or 1-300-88-2999 (monitored during business hours)
**Fax :** +603 89453442
**Handphone :** +60 19 2665850 (24x7 call incident reporting)
**SMS :** +60 19 2813801 (24x7 SMS reporting)
**Business Hours :** Mon - Fri 08:30 -17:30 MYT
**Web:** [https://www.mycert.org.my](https://www.mycert.org.my/)
**5.0 References**
- <http://secunia.com/advisories/36384/>
- <http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=125069450302665&w=2>
- <http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2009-1218.html>
- <http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=7000&rss>