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Vulnerability Note VU#180513

Microsoft Video ActiveX control stack buffer overflow

Overview

The Microsoft Video ActiveX control contains a stack buffer overflow vulnerability, which can allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.

I. Description

Microsoft Windows comes with an ActiveX component called "ActiveX control for streaming video," which is provided by msvidctl.dll. This component provides a number of Class Identifiers (CLSIDs) that are marked as Safe for Scripting and Safe for Initialization, which means that they can be used by Internet Explorer. The ActiveX controls provided by msvidctl.dll fail to properly handle file input, which can result in stack memory corruption. This can allow the Structured Exception Handler (SEH) to be overwritten, thus allowing subversion of the program execution flow.

II. Impact

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user.

III. Solution

Microsoft has released an update to address this issue. See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-032 for more information.

Disable the vulnerable ActiveX controls

Microsoft Security Advisory (972890) explains how to disable the 45 ActiveX controls provided by msvidctl.dll to mitigate this vulnerability. A Microsoft Fix it application is provided in Microsoft Knowledgebase article 972890 to disable these controls.

Disable ActiveX

Disabling ActiveX controls in the Internet Zone (or any zone used by an attacker) appears to prevent exploitation of this and other ActiveX vulnerabilities. Instructions for disabling ActiveX in the Internet Zone can be found in the "Securing Your Web Browser" document. 

Systems Affected

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Microsoft CorporationVulnerable2009-07-15

References

http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/securing_browser/
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/972890.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972890
http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2009/07/09/microsoft-video-activex-control-0day-technical-details
http://addxorrol.blogspot.com/2009/07/poking-around-msvidctldll.html
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=6733
http://www.csis.dk/dk/nyheder/nyheder.asp?tekstID=799
http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/07/06/new-vulnerability-in-mpeg2tunerequest-activex-control-object-in-msvidctl-dll.aspx
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-187A.html
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-195A.html
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-032.mspx

Credit

This document was written by Will Dormann.

Other Information

Date Public:2009-07-04
Date First Published:2009-07-06
Date Last Updated:2009-07-15
CERT Advisory: 
CVE-ID(s):CVE-2008-0015
NVD-ID(s):CVE-2008-0015
US-CERT Technical Alerts:TA09-187A; TA09-195A
Metric:65.31
Document Revision:24

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.
 

 
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