Microsoft Office Excel File Rebuilding Code Execution Vulnerability
Vulnerability Details
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Microsoft Office. Exploitation requires that the attacker coerce the target into opening a malicious .XLS file.
The specific flaw exists within the rebuilding of malformed cell comments. When Excel encounters a malformed record it attempts to rebuild the broken meta-data. A flaw in this rebuilding process allows the user to specify critical data offsets eventually leading to code execution with the credentials of the current user.
Additional Details
Microsoft has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS06-037.mspx
Disclosure Timeline
- 2006-06-15 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
- 2006-07-11 - Coordinated public release of advisory
Credit
Arnaud Dovi 'class101' http://heapoverflow.com
