__________________________________________________________ The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability ___ __ __ _ ___ / | /_\ / \___ __|__ / \ \___ __________________________________________________________ INFORMATION BULLETIN Vulnerability in PowerPoint [Microsoft Security Advisory (922970)] July 20, 2006 19:00 GMT Number Q-249 [REVISED 14 Aug 2006] ______________________________________________________________________________ PROBLEM: Microsoft is investigating new public reports of limited “zero-day” attacks using a vulnerability in Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 and Microsoft PowerPoint 2003. PLATFORM: Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 DAMAGE: 1) An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. 2) On Outlook 2002 and Outlook 2003, the vulnerability could not be exploited automatically through e-mail. For an attack to be successful a user must accept a prompt confirming that they Open, Save or Cancel the attachment that is sent in an e-mail message before the exploit could occur. 3) In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a Web site that contains a Web page that is used to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or instant messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site. SOLUTION: Microsoft has workarounds for these vulnerabilities. Patches will be available soon. ______________________________________________________________________________ VULNERABILITY The risk is HIGH. Remote code execution. ASSESSMENT: ______________________________________________________________________________ LINKS: CIAC BULLETIN: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/q-249.shtml ORIGINAL BULLETIN: Microsoft Security Advisory (922970) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/922970.mspx CVE: http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2006-3590 ______________________________________________________________________________ REVISION HISTORY: 08/14/06 - updated to reference released security bulletin [***** Start Microsoft Security Advisory (922970) *****] Microsoft Security Advisory (922970) Vulnerability in PowerPoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution Published: July 17, 2006 | Updated: August 11, 2006 Microsoft has completed the investigation into a public report of this vulnerability. We have issued MS06-048 to address this issue. For more information about this issue, including download links for an available security update, please review MS06-048. The vulnerability addressed is the Microsoft PowerPoint Mso.dll Vulnerability - CVE-2006-3590. Resources: • You can provide feedback by completing the form by visiting the following Web site. • Customers in the U.S. and Canada can receive technical support from Microsoft Product Support Services. For more information about available support options, see the Microsoft Help and Support Web site. • International customers can receive support from their local Microsoft subsidiaries. For more information about how to contact Microsoft for international support issues, visit the International Support Web site. • The Microsoft TechNet Security Web site provides additional information about security in Microsoft products. Disclaimer: The information provided in this advisory 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. Revisions: • V1.0 (July 17, 2006): Advisory published. • V 2.0 (Aug 11, 2006): Advisory updated to reference released security bulletin. [***** End Microsoft Security Advisory (922970) *****] _______________________________________________________________________________ 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 (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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