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You Have 1 New Appwntment: Hacking Proprietary iCalendar Properties

Eugene Lim

Eugene Lim (spac3sc) explores vulnerabilities in the ubiquitous iCalendar (.ics) standard, demonstrating zero-click XSS, RCE, and credential theft via calendar invites.

Summary

The Ubiquitous and Insecure iCalendar Standard

First standardized in 1998, the iCalendar (.ics) specification is universally supported by email clients, mobile operating systems, and enterprise scheduling software.

Auditing Proprietary Vendor Extensions and Parsers

Eugene Lim analyzes how major vendors implement custom, undocumented X-properties, leading to parsing inconsistencies and injection vulnerabilities.

Demonstrating Zero-Click Exploits via Calendar Invites

Lim showcases real-world exploit chains across popular email clients and web apps—triggering stored cross-site scripting (XSS), URL scheme handler hijacking, and remote code execution.

Hardening Calendar Ingestion Pipelines

The author outlines essential parsing sanitization standards, Content Security Policy adjustments, and safe calendar processing practices.

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