Title: Microsoft Excel File Rebuilding Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Severity: HIGH
Description:
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application; it is part of the Microsoft Windows suite of business productivity tools.
Microsoft Excel is prone to a remote code-execution vulnerability.
Successfully exploiting this issue allows attackers to execute arbitrary code in the context of targeted users. This issue occurs when Excel handles specially crafted, malformed XLS files.
When Excel processes the malformed files, corruption of process memory occurs, and the attacker-supplied code may then execute with the privileges of the user running the application.
The problem occurs when the vulnerable application attempts to rebuild the meta-data of malformed cell comments. Attackers can exploit this to scpecify critical data offsets, eventually leading to potential code execution in the context of the victim user.
Note that Microsoft Office applications include functionality to embed Office files as objects contained in other Office files. As an example, Microsoft Word files may contain embedded malicious Microsoft Excel files, making Word documents another possible attack vector.
Note also that attackers can exploit this vulnerability automatically through email on all affected platforms except Excel 2002 and Excel 2003 as the victim will be presented with an 'Open/Save/Cancel' dialog. An attacker could also exploit the issue by placing the malicious document on the web and enticing victim users into opening it. Excel 2000 will not prompt a user with an 'Open/Save/Cancel' dialog when the document is opened.
Affected Products:
- Microsoft Excel 2000
- Microsoft Excel 2000 SP2
- Microsoft Excel 2000 SP3
- Microsoft Excel 2000 SR1
- Microsoft Excel 2002
- Microsoft Excel 2002 SP1
- Microsoft Excel 2002 SP2
- Microsoft Excel 2002 SP3
- Microsoft Excel 2003
- Microsoft Excel 2003 SP1
- Microsoft Excel 2003 SP2
- Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac
- Microsoft Excel Viewer 2003
- Microsoft Excel x for Mac
- Microsoft Office 2000
- Microsoft Office 2000 SP1
- Microsoft Office 2000 SP2
- Microsoft Office 2000 SP3
- Microsoft Office 2003
- Microsoft Office 2003 SP1
- Microsoft Office XP
- Microsoft Office XP SP1
- Microsoft Office XP SP2
- Microsoft Office XP SP3
References:
- Microsoft: Office Product Updates
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