Microsoft Internet Explorer UTF-8 Decoding Heap Overflow Vulnerability
Vulnerability Details
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Successful exploitation requires that the target user browse to a malicious web page. Exploitaton does not require JavaScript, Java or ActiveX to be enabled.
The specific vulnerability is due to a miscalculation of memory sizes when translating UTF-8 characters to Unicode. A size mismatch between a heap allocation and memory copy results in an exploitable heap corruption.
Additional Details
Microsoft has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS06-021.mspx
Disclosure Timeline
- 2006-01-20 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
- 2006-06-13 - Coordinated public release of advisory
Credit
Anonymous
