Vulnerability Note VU#609868

Microsoft Office string parsing vulnerability

Original Release date: 11 Jul 2006 | Last revised: 11 Jul 2006

Overview

Microsoft Office fails to properly parse strings. This vulnerability could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code.

Description

Microsoft Office applications fail to properly parse strings. When an Office document containing malformed string is opened with an Office application, system memory can be corrupted in a way that may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

More information, including a list of affected Office applications, is available in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-038.

Impact

A remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code.

Solution

Apply a patch from Microsoft
Microsoft addresses this vulnerability with the updates listed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-038.

Do not access Office documents from untrusted sources


By only accessing Office documents, such as spreadsheets or Microsoft Word documents, from trusted or known sources, the chances of exploitation are reduced.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Microsoft CorporationAffected-11 Jul 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 MS06-038. Microsoft credits Elia Florio of Symantec with providing information regarding this vulnerability.

This document was written by Jeff Gennari.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CVE-2006-1540
  • Date Public: 11 Jul 2006
  • Date First Published: 11 Jul 2006
  • Date Last Updated: 11 Jul 2006
  • Severity Metric: 33.67
  • Document Revision: 8

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