TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

Microsoft PowerPoint TimeCommandBehaviorContainer Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-11-123: April 12th, 2011

CVE ID

CVSS Score

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

TippingPoint™ IPS Customer Protection

TippingPoint IPS customers are protected against this vulnerability by Digital Vaccine protection filter ID 10822. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Microsoft Office PowerPoint. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file.

The specific flaw exists within the ppcore.dll module responsible for parsing PowerPoint (ppt) files. When parsing a malformed TimeCommandBehaviorContainer structure the process raises an exception that causes an object in memory to be freed prior to being fully parsed. Due to the lack of a check that this object has been freed, a later function references an invalid pointer element. This can be leveraged by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code under the context of the user running PowerPoint.

Vendor Response

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

Disclosure Timeline

    2010-09-24 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2011-04-12 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Anonymous