CVE-2002-0021 in Office
Summary
by MITRE
Network Product Identification (PID) Checker in Microsoft Office v. X for Mac allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a malformed product announcement.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/20/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2002-0021 resides within the Network Product Identification (PID) Checker component of Microsoft Office X for Mac, representing a classic denial of service flaw that emerged during the early 2000s computing landscape. This vulnerability specifically targets the network communication protocols employed by Microsoft Office to identify and interact with networked products, creating a pathway for malicious actors to disrupt normal system operations. The flaw manifests when the PID checker processes malformed product announcement packets, which are typically used to announce and identify network services within Microsoft Office environments. The vulnerability falls under the category of improper input validation, where the system fails to properly sanitize or validate incoming network data before processing it, directly correlating to CWE-20, which addresses improper input validation in software systems. This weakness creates a condition where an attacker can craft specially malformed network announcements that, when processed by the vulnerable Office X for Mac client, trigger unexpected behavior leading to application termination.
The technical execution of this vulnerability involves the manipulation of network protocols that Microsoft Office X for Mac uses to discover and communicate with networked devices and services. When the PID checker encounters a malformed product announcement packet, the parsing logic fails to handle the unexpected data structure properly, resulting in a crash of the Office application. This occurs because the application lacks robust error handling mechanisms to gracefully process malformed network data, instead allowing the malformed input to propagate through the system until it causes a critical failure. The vulnerability specifically impacts the network discovery and identification features of Office X for Mac, where the application attempts to enumerate available network resources and services. The flaw demonstrates characteristics of a buffer overflow or memory corruption issue, where improperly handled network data causes the application to access invalid memory locations or execute unintended code paths, ultimately leading to application instability and system crash.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it represents a potential vector for more sophisticated attacks within corporate network environments where Microsoft Office X for Mac is deployed. In enterprise settings, this vulnerability could be exploited to repeatedly crash Office applications across multiple user systems, causing productivity losses and potential business disruption. The remote nature of the attack means that adversaries do not require physical access to target systems, making it particularly dangerous in networked environments where multiple users may be affected simultaneously. Organizations utilizing Microsoft Office X for Mac in networked environments would face significant operational challenges if this vulnerability were exploited, as the denial of service could occur without any user interaction required from the target system. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of network security monitoring, as malicious network announcements could be used to identify systems running vulnerable versions of Microsoft Office X for Mac, potentially enabling further attacks. This attack vector aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks, and demonstrates how seemingly benign network discovery protocols can become attack surfaces when not properly secured.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2002-0021 should focus on both immediate protective measures and long-term architectural improvements to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in network communication components. The most effective immediate solution involves applying Microsoft security patches and updates that address the input validation issues within the PID checker functionality, though this specific vulnerability was addressed through Microsoft's security update process for Office X for Mac. Network administrators should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit the exposure of vulnerable systems to potentially malicious network traffic, particularly in environments where Office X for Mac is deployed. The implementation of network monitoring and intrusion detection systems can help identify suspicious network announcements that may indicate exploitation attempts, providing early warning capabilities for potential attacks. Additionally, organizations should consider disabling unnecessary network discovery features within Office applications when these features are not required for business operations, reducing the attack surface available to potential adversaries. Security configuration guidelines should emphasize the importance of validating all network input and implementing proper error handling mechanisms to prevent malformed data from causing application crashes. The vulnerability also underscores the necessity of maintaining up-to-date security practices and regular vulnerability assessments to identify similar weaknesses in network communication protocols across all Microsoft Office versions and related products, as similar patterns of input validation failures have been observed in other Microsoft products and network services.