TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative

Microsoft Excel File Format Parsing Vulnerability

ZDI-06-004: March 14th, 2006

CVE ID

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Microsoft Office. Exploitation requires that the attacker coerce the target into opening a malicious .XLS file.

The specific flaw exists within the parsing of the BIFF file format used by Microsoft Excel. During the processing of malformed BOOLERR records, user-supplied data may be insecurely referenced thereby leading to the eventual execution of arbitrary code.

Vendor Response

Microsoft has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:

Disclosure Timeline

    2006-01-24 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2006-03-14 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Arnaud Dovi aka 'class101', http://heapoverflow.com