Vulnerability Note VU#753924

Microsoft Internet Explorer fails to properly instantiate COM objects

Overview

A vulnerability in the way Microsoft Internet Explorer instantiates COM objects may lead to execution of arbitrary code.

I. Description

Component Object Model, or COM objects are used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation within Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Internet Explorer contains a vulnerability that could be exploited when it attempts to load specially crafted websites that instantiate specific COM objects contained in Imjpcksid.dll, and Imjpskdic.dll. According to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-016:

When Internet Explorer tries to instantiate certain COM objects as ActiveX controls, the COM objects may corrupt the system state in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code.

Note that this vulnerability does not affect Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista.

II. Impact

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

III. Solution

Update

Microsoft has released an update to address this issue. See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-016 for more details.

Disable ActiveX

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

Note that disabling ActiveX controls in the Internet Zone will reduce the functionality of some web sites.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Updated
Microsoft Corporation	Vulnerable	13-Feb-2007

References

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms07-016.mspx
http://secunia.com/advisories/24156/
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/22486

Credit

This vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-016.

This document was written by Chris Taschner.

Other Information

Date Public	02/13/2007
Date First Published	02/13/2007 03:23:07 PM
Date Last Updated	02/23/2007
CERT Advisory
CVE-ID(s)	CVE-2006-4697
NVD-ID(s)	CVE-2006-4697
US-CERT Technical Alerts
Metric	25.65
Document Revision	11

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Produced 2007 by US-CERT, a government organization
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