Microsoft Publisher Object Handler Validation Vulnerability

Overview

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iPolicy Networks Security Advisory


Date Discovered:	05/13/2008
Severity:	High
Applications Affected:	Microsoft Office 2000 SP3 Microsoft Office XP SP3 Microsoft Office 2003 SP2 Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 Microsoft Office System 2007 Microsoft Office System 2007 SP1

Synopsis

Microsoft Publisher is prone to a Object Handler Validation Vulnerability. This vulnerability exists in the way Microsoft Publisher validates object header data. An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending a specially crafted Publisher file which could be included as an e-mail attachment, or hosted on a specially crafted or compromised Web site.

Recommended Actions

Update the patches as guided by vendor at :
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-027.mspx

Threat Analysis

An object handler is a dynamic-link library (DLL) for an OLE server application. This DLL acts as an intermediary between the client and server applications. The vulnerability is caused by an error in calculating object handler data when opening a specially crafted Publisher file. The error may corrupt system memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code.

This vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted Publisher file with Microsoft Publisher. In an e-mail attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending a specially crafted Publisher file to the user and by convincing the user to open the file.

An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs, view, change, delete data, or create new accounts with full user rights.

References

http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-0119

Write-up by: Aditya Chaturvedi

Security Sites

“iPolicy is one of the most visionary firewall vendors in the firewall Magic Quadrant. Its architecture of a central session processing engine and multiple content blades that are able to block based on signatures, rules and so on is the closest to the network security ideal.”

Greg Young, John Pescatore
Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls, 2H04, Gartner

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