Vulnerability Note VU#599832

Microsoft Internet Explorer Script Error Handling Memory Corruption Vulnerability

Original Release date: 13 Dec 2006 | Last revised: 18 Dec 2006

Overview

A vulnerability in the way Microsoft Internet Explorer handles certain script errors may lead to memory corruption that may allow remote execution of arbitrary code.

Description

Microsoft Internet Explorer contains a memory corruption vulnerability that could be exploited when handling script errors. According to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-072:

    Internet Explorer attempts to access previously freed memory when handling script errors in certain situations.

Impact

A remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service condition.

Solution

Update
Microsoft has released an update to address this issue. See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-072 for more details.

Disable scripting

Disable scripting as specified in the Securing Your Web Browser document and the Malicious Web Scripts FAQ.


Do not follow unsolicited links

In order to convince users to visit their sites, attackers often use URL encoding, IP address variations, long URLs, intentional misspellings, and other techniques to create misleading links. Do not click on unsolicited links received in email, instant messages, web forums, or internet relay chat (IRC) channels. Type URLs directly into the browser to avoid these misleading links. While these are generally good security practices, following these behaviors will not prevent exploitation of this vulnerability in all cases, particularly if a trusted site has been compromised or allows cross-site scripting.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Microsoft CorporationAffected-12 Dec 2006
If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.

CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

Group Score Vector
Base N/A N/A
Temporal N/A N/A
Environmental N/A N/A

References

Credit

This vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-072. Microsoft credits Jakob Balle and Carsten Eiram of Secunia Research for reporting this issue.

This document was written by Chris Taschner.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2006-5579
  • Date Public: 12 Dec 2006
  • Date First Published: 13 Dec 2006
  • Date Last Updated: 18 Dec 2006
  • Severity Metric: 24.30
  • Document Revision: 7

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