Title: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 Print Template ActiveX Vulnerability
Severity: HIGH
Description:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 is susceptible to a vulnerability that would allow a malicious website operator to execute arbitrary ActiveX controls on a target system. This is due to an implementation flaw in the print template feature.
Print templates is the mechanism used by Internet Explorer 5.5 that controls print/print preview behavior and allows customization of the layout of browser documents when printing/print previewing. They are considered trusted code and therefore are able to execute any ActiveX control regardless of whether they have been marked safe for scripting or not. Under normal circumstances, custom print templates that are served up by a website should only be executed if the user agrees to do so. However, it is possible to circumvent this and a website would be able to proceed to process the print template and run the ActiveX control of their choice which spans a wide range of actions including addition, deletion, execution, and modification of files on the remote system.
If ActiveX controls were disabled in Internet Explorer, this vulnerability could not be exploited.
Affected Products:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5
- Microsoft Windows ME
References:
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