CVE-2016-3278 in Office
Summary
by MITRE
Microsoft Outlook 2010 SP2, 2013 SP1, 2013 RT SP1, and 2016 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Office document, aka "Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/01/2022
This vulnerability represents a critical memory corruption flaw in Microsoft Outlook 2010 SP2, 2013 SP1, 2013 RT SP1, and 2016 that enables remote code execution through maliciously crafted Office documents. The issue stems from insufficient input validation and memory management practices within the Outlook application's handling of specially constructed Office file formats. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by enticing victims to open seemingly legitimate Office documents that contain malformed data structures designed to trigger buffer overflows or other memory corruption conditions. The vulnerability falls under the CWE-125 weakness category, specifically addressing out-of-bounds read conditions that occur when the application fails to properly validate the boundaries of memory allocations during document processing. This type of vulnerability aligns with the ATT&CK technique T1203, where adversaries leverage application vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code on target systems. The memory corruption occurs during the parsing of Office document elements such as embedded objects, headers, or metadata fields that are processed by Outlook's internal rendering engines. When these malformed elements are encountered, the application's memory management routines fail to properly handle the unexpected data, leading to unpredictable behavior including stack corruption, heap corruption, or pointer dereference errors that can be leveraged by malicious actors to gain unauthorized code execution privileges. The exploitation typically requires social engineering tactics to convince users to open the malicious document, as the vulnerability is triggered during normal document opening procedures. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it can be delivered through email attachments or web-based Office document hosting, making it a significant threat to enterprise environments where Outlook is widely used for email communication. Organizations running these vulnerable versions of Outlook face substantial risk of compromise, as successful exploitation can lead to full system control, data exfiltration, and potential lateral movement within network infrastructures. The vulnerability demonstrates the inherent complexity of modern office document processing systems and the challenges of implementing robust input validation for the extensive and varied formats used in Microsoft Office applications. Security researchers have identified that this flaw exists in multiple product versions, indicating a widespread issue that affects a significant portion of Microsoft Office users. The exploitation process typically involves crafting a document that triggers a specific memory access pattern, causing the application to jump to attacker-controlled code execution paths. This vulnerability requires no special privileges to exploit, making it particularly dangerous as it can be leveraged by attackers with minimal initial access to the target environment. Microsoft addressed this vulnerability through security updates that improved input validation and memory handling within the Office document processing pipeline. The fix involved implementing stricter boundary checks and enhanced memory management routines to prevent the corruption conditions that led to arbitrary code execution. Organizations should prioritize applying these security patches to protect against potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of email security measures such as sandboxing Office documents, implementing strict attachment filtering policies, and maintaining current antivirus signatures to detect and block malicious Office documents before they can be opened by vulnerable applications. Network monitoring solutions should be configured to detect anomalous Office document processing patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. The incident underscores the ongoing challenge of securing complex office productivity applications against sophisticated attack vectors that exploit memory corruption vulnerabilities in widely used software platforms.