-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- __________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN Microsoft "Office 2000 UA Control" Vulnerability May 16, 2000 20:00 GMT Number K-042 ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: The ActiveX control "Office 2000 UA Control" was incorrectly marked as "safe for scripting" when it was shipped as a part of Office 2000. PLATFORM: Platforms running Office 2000 or selected members of the Office 2000 family of applications. DAMAGE: A malicious web site operator could use the control to take inappropriate actions on the computers of people who visited the web site. SOLUTION: Apply the vendor's patch as directed by the advisory. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is LOW. The user must either visit the malicious web ASSESSMENT: site or receive an HTML mail that used the control. The HTML mail attack fails if the recipient's mail handler does not allow the automatic execution of ActiveX controls. ______________________________________________________________________________ [ Start of Microsoft Security Bulletin ] Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-034) - - -------------------------------------- Patch Available for "Office 2000 UA Control" Vulnerability Originally Posted: May 12, 2000 Summary ======= Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security vulnerability in Microsoft(r) Office 2000 and Office 2000 family members. The vulnerability could allow a malicious web site operator to take inappropriate action on the computer of a user who visited his web site. Frequently asked questions regarding this vulnerability and the patch can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq00-034.asp Issue ===== An ActiveX control that ships as part of Office 2000 is incorrectly marked as "safe for scripting". This control, the Office 2000 UA Control, is used by the "Show Me" function in Office Help, and allows Office functions to be scripted. A malicious web site operator could use the control to carry out Office functions on the machine of a user who visited his site. The control ships only as part of Office 2000 (and Office 2000 family members, as listed below). The patch removes all unsafe functionality, with the result that the "Show Me" function will be disabled in Office 2000. Affected Software Versions ========================== - Office 2000 Note: The products in the Office suite also are available for purchase separately. The control ships as part of the following such products: - Word 2000 - Excel 2000 - Powerpoint 2000 - Access 2000 - Photodraw 2000 - FrontPage 2000 - Project 2000 - Publisher 2000 - Outlook 2000 - Works 2000 Suite Patch Availability ================== - http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/info/ocx.htm NOTE: Additional security patches are available at the Microsoft Download Center More Information ================ Please see the following references for more information related to this issue. - Frequently Asked Questions: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-034, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq00-034.asp - Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q262767 discusses this issue and will be available soon. - Microsoft TechNet Security web site, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/default.asp Obtaining Support on this Issue =============================== This is a fully supported patch. Information on contacting Microsoft Technical Support is available at http://support.microsoft.com/support/contact/default.asp. Acknowledgments =============== Microsoft thanks Dildog of the @Stake, Inc. L0pht Research Labs for reporting this vulnerability to us and working with us to protect customers. Revisions ========= - May 12, 2000: Bulletin Created. - - ----------------------------------------------- THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY. Last updated May 12, 2000 (c) 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of use. [ End of Microsoft Security Bulletin ] ______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Microsoft for the information contained in this bulletin. ______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CIAC is located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. CIAC is also a founding member of FIRST, the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, a global organization established to foster cooperation and coordination among computer security teams worldwide. CIAC services are available to DOE, DOE contractors, and the NIH. CIAC can be contacted at: Voice: +1 925-422-8193 FAX: +1 925-423-8002 STU-III: +1 925-423-2604 E-mail: ciac@llnl.gov For emergencies and off-hour assistance, DOE, DOE contractor sites, and the NIH may contact CIAC 24-hours a day. During off hours (5PM - 8AM PST), use one of the following methods to contact CIAC: 1. Call the CIAC voice number 925-422-8193 and leave a message, or 2. Call 888-449-8369 to send a Sky Page to the CIAC duty person or 3. Send e-mail to 4498369@skytel.com, or 4. Call 800-201-9288 for the CIAC Project Leader. Previous CIAC notices, anti-virus software, and other information are available from the CIAC Computer Security Archive. World Wide Web: http://www.ciac.org/ (or http://ciac.llnl.gov -- they're the same machine) Anonymous FTP: ftp.ciac.org (or ciac.llnl.gov -- they're the same machine) Modem access: +1 (925) 423-4753 (28.8K baud) +1 (925) 423-3331 (28.8K baud) PLEASE NOTE: Many users outside of the DOE, ESnet, and NIH computing communities receive CIAC bulletins. If you are not part of these communities, please contact your agency's response team to report incidents. Your agency's team will coordinate with CIAC. The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) is a world-wide organization. A list of FIRST member organizations and their constituencies can be obtained via WWW at http://www.first.org/. This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. LAST 10 CIAC BULLETINS ISSUED (Previous bulletins available from CIAC) K-032: DDoS Mediation Action List K-033: Microsoft "Myriad Escaped Characters" Vulnerability K-034: Cisco Catalyst Enable Password Bypass Vulnerability K-035: Backdoor Password in Red Hat Linux Virtual Server Package K-036: Continuing Compromises of DNS Servers K-037: "mstream" Distributed Denial of Service Tool K-038: Security Holes in FileMaker 5 Web Companion K-039: VBS.Love Letter.A Worm K-040: Netscape Navigator Improperly Validates SSL Sessions K-041: Denial of Service and File Reading Vulnerabilities in Microsoft IIS -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.0 Business Edition iQCVAwUBOSHaH7nzJzdsy3QZAQHmEwP/eDm4d3QiwuyyE83eaC3Kv+kjrwlBGj2A mbgRDbEfk/hbnTEVkGDlIT5WJEEMDuRpG3JDmCAHItGq8kfVbpQ+P5qIV1yGbZYl PjaWL+ucAggYDRjiCnSzycFu5wJEgwEeJjtYHuBDBCOKKTmnQJ4IMTUkr4V2+JV6 I8rLz8rqewE= =Aw9z -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----