TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative

Microsoft Word Malformed Chart Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-06-034: October 10th, 2006

CVE ID

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

Vulnerability Details

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

The specific flaw exists during the processing of malformed charts embedded within a Word document. Upon closing the document, certain pointers are corrupted with data direclty from the file. A later dereference of these corrupted pointers can result in code execution.

Vendor Response

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

Disclosure Timeline

    2006-06-14 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2006-10-10 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

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