CVE-2015-2415 in Excel
Summary
by MITRE
Microsoft Excel 2007 SP3, Excel 2010 SP2, Excel 2013 SP1, Excel 2013 RT SP1, and Office Compatibility Pack SP3 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted Office document, aka "Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/31/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-2415 represents a critical memory corruption flaw within Microsoft Excel applications across multiple versions including Excel 2007 SP3, Excel 2010 SP2, Excel 2013 SP1, Excel 2013 RT SP1, and the Office Compatibility Pack SP3. This vulnerability falls under the category of remote code execution flaws that can be exploited through maliciously crafted Office documents, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where users frequently open documents from untrusted sources. The flaw stems from inadequate input validation and memory management within the Excel application's handling of specific file formats, creating a pathway for attackers to inject malicious code that executes with the privileges of the targeted user.
The technical nature of this vulnerability involves improper memory handling when processing specially crafted Office documents that contain malformed data structures. When Excel attempts to parse these malicious documents, the application fails to properly validate the memory allocations and data processing operations, leading to memory corruption that can be leveraged by attackers to execute arbitrary code on the target system. This type of vulnerability is classified as a buffer overflow or memory corruption issue that aligns with CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions, and CWE-787, which covers out-of-bounds writes. The exploitation typically occurs through a carefully constructed Office document that triggers the vulnerable code path during document parsing, potentially allowing attackers to gain full system compromise.
The operational impact of CVE-2015-2415 extends beyond simple denial of service scenarios, as it provides attackers with the capability to execute arbitrary code remotely without requiring user interaction beyond opening the malicious document. This makes the vulnerability particularly attractive for phishing campaigns and targeted attacks where adversaries can deliver malicious documents via email or other means. The vulnerability affects a wide range of Microsoft Office products, increasing the attack surface significantly and making it difficult for organizations to fully protect against exploitation. Organizations may experience unauthorized access to sensitive data, system compromise, and potential lateral movement within networks, as attackers can establish persistent access through the executed malicious code. The vulnerability also impacts organizations using the Office Compatibility Pack, which means that even users with older Office versions may be vulnerable if they have the compatibility pack installed.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected systems through Microsoft's security updates, as the primary defense against exploitation. Organizations should implement comprehensive email filtering and sandboxing solutions to prevent the delivery of malicious Office documents to end users, while also maintaining strict access controls and network segmentation to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation. Security teams should monitor for indicators of compromise related to this vulnerability and implement endpoint detection and response solutions to identify potential exploitation attempts. Additionally, user education programs should emphasize the importance of avoiding suspicious documents and emails, while regular security assessments should verify that all systems are properly updated and that appropriate security controls are in place to protect against similar vulnerabilities. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this type of vulnerability under techniques such as T1203 (Exploitation for Client Execution) and T1059 (Command and Scripting Interpreter) as attackers leverage the vulnerability to establish persistent access and execute malicious commands on compromised systems.