Microsoft Internet Explorer swapNode Handling Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Vulnerability Details
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Microsoft Internet Explorer. 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 way Internet Explorer handles calls to the method swapNode(). When a call to swapNode is issued on an node within a document that has two body nodes, Internet Explorer frees an attribute field for one of the body nodes and then later re-uses the freed field during the node swap. This behavior could result in remote code execution under the context of the current user.
Additional Details
Microsoft has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms11-081
Disclosure Timeline
- 2011-07-20 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
- 2011-10-15 - Coordinated public release of advisory
Credit
Sebastian Apelt (www.siberas.de)
