Vulnerability Note VU#920060

Microsoft Windows HTML Help component fails to properly validate input data

Original Release date: 14 Jul 2004 | Last revised: 14 Jul 2004

Overview

There is a vulnerability in the HTML Help component of Microsoft Windows that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on an affected system.

Description

Microsoft HTML Help provides a standard help system for the Windows operating system. There is a vulnerability in the way certain input data is processed by the HTML Help component. Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute code of the attacker's choice if the attacker can convince the victim to view a specially crafted HTML document or click on a specially crafted URL in an HTML email message. For more information, please refer to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-023.

According to the Microsoft Security Bulletin, this issue is not related to previous vulnerabilities reported in the Help and Support Center (HSC) that were addressed in MS04-11 and MS04-15.

Impact

By convincing a victim to view a specially crafted HTML document or click on a specially crafted URL in an HTML email message, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on the victim's system.

Solution

Apply patch
Apply a patch as described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-023.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
Microsoft CorporationAffected-14 Jul 2004
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 by Microsoft. In turn, Microsoft credits Brett Moore of Security-Assessment.com for reporting this vulnerability to them.

This document was written by Damon Morda and based on information provided by Microsoft.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: CAN-2004-0201
  • Date Public: 13 Jul 2004
  • Date First Published: 14 Jul 2004
  • Date Last Updated: 14 Jul 2004
  • Severity Metric: 30.37
  • Document Revision: 14

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