TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative

Microsoft Windows Address Book (WAB) File Format Parsing Vulnerability

ZDI-06-007: April 11th, 2006

CVE ID

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

    File Format Vulnerability

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of the Microsoft Windows operating system. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability.

The specific flaw exists during the parsing of malformed Windows Address Book (.WAB) files. Modification of the length value of certain Unicode strings within this file format results in an exploitable heap corruption.

Vendor Response

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

Disclosure Timeline

    2005-09-20 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2006-04-11 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Stuart Pearson - Computer Terrorism (UK)