__________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN Microsoft Word Vulnerability [Techincal Cyber Security Alert TA06-139A] May 22, 2006 17:00 GMT Number Q-202 [REVISED 23 May 2006] [REVISED 05 Jun 2006] [REVISED 14 Jun 2006] [REVISED 22 Jun 2006] [REVISED 26 Jun 2006] ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: Microsoft Word contains a buffer overflow vulnerability. Opening a specially crafted Word document, including documents hosted on web sites or attached to email messages, could trigger the vulnerability. PLATFORM: Microsoft Word 2003 Microsoft Word XP (2002) DAMAGE: Could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. SOLUTION: Apply current patches. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is HIGH. Could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary ASSESSMENT: code. ______________________________________________________________________________ LINKS: CIAC BULLETIN: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/q-202.shtml ORIGINAL BULLETIN: US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-139A http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA06-139A.html ADDITIONAL LINKS: Microsoft Security Advisory (919637) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/919637.mspx Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-027 (917336) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-027.mspx CVE: http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2006-2492 ______________________________________________________________________________ REVISION HISTORY: 05/23/2006 - revised Q-202 to add a link to Microsoft Security Advisory (919637) for Buffer overflow in Mircosoft Word XP and Word 2003. 06/05/2006 - updated the “Frequently Asked Questions” section and provide additional clarity around “Step 2 Append /safe to the WINWORD.EXE command line” for “Enterprise Customers using group policy” section under “Always use Microsoft Word in Safe Mode” for Microsoft Security Advisory (919637). 06/14/2006 - added a link to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-027 (917336) and to note that Microsoft Security Advisory (919637) was updated to reference released security bulletin 06/22/2006 - updated to note that Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-027 (917336) updated the “What updates does this release replace?” for Word 2003 06/26/2006 - updated our "SOLUTION" section [***** Start Techincal Cyber Security Alert TA06-139A *****] Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-139A Microsoft Word Vulnerability Original release date: May 19, 2006 Last revised: -- Source: US-CERT Systems Affected * Microsoft Word 2003 * Microsoft Word XP (2002) Microsoft Word is included in Microsoft Works Suite and Microsoft Office. Other versions of Word, and other Office programs may be affected or act as attack vectors. Overview A buffer overflow vulnerability in Microsoft Word could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. I. Description Microsoft Word contains a buffer overflow vulnerability. Opening a specially crafted Word document, including documents hosted on web sites or attached to email messages, could trigger the vulnerability. Office documents can contain embedded objects. For example, a malicious Word document could be embedded in an Excel or PowerPoint document. Office documents other than Word documents could be used as attack vectors. For more information, please see Vulnerability Note VU#446012. II. Impact By convincing a user to open a specially crafted Word document, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. If the user has administrative privileges, the attacker could gain complete control of the system. III. Solution At the time of writing, there is no complete solution available. Consider the following workarounds: Do not open untrusted Word documents Do not open unfamiliar or unexpected Word or other Office documents, including those received as email attachments or hosted on a web site. Please see Cyber Security Tip ST04-010 for more information. Do not rely on file extension filtering In most cases, Windows will call Word to open a document even if the document has an unknown file extension. For example, if document.d0c (note the digit "0") contains the correct file header information, Windows will open document.d0c with Word. Appendix A. References Vulnerability Note VU#446012 - Cyber Security Tip ST04-010 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information used in this document came from SANS and Microsoft. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feedback can be directed to US-CERT. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Produced 2006 by US-CERT, a government organization. Terms of use Revision History May 19, 2006: Initial release [***** End Techincal Cyber Security Alert TA06-139A *****] _______________________________________________________________________________ CIAC wishes to acknowledge the contributions of US-CERT 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 (7x24) FAX: +1 925-423-8002 STU-III: +1 925-423-2604 E-mail: ciac@ciac.org Previous CIAC notices, anti-virus software, and other information are available from the CIAC Computer Security Archive. World Wide Web: http://www.ciac.org/ Anonymous FTP: ftp.ciac.org 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. 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