CVE-2016-7268 in Office
Summary
by MITRE
Microsoft Word 2007 SP3, Office 2010 SP2, Word 2010 SP2, Office Compatibility Pack SP3, Word Viewer, Word for Mac 2011, Word Automation Services on SharePoint Server 2010 SP2, and Office Web Apps 2010 SP2 allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information from process memory or cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) via a crafted document, aka "Microsoft Office Information Disclosure Vulnerability."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/08/2022
This vulnerability resides in Microsoft Word and related Office applications, specifically affecting versions including Word 2007 SP3, Office 2010 SP2, and various other legacy Office products. The flaw manifests as an out-of-bounds read condition that occurs when processing specially crafted Word documents, representing a critical information disclosure vulnerability that can expose sensitive data from process memory. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-125 as an out-of-bounds read, which falls within the broader category of memory safety issues that have historically led to significant security breaches. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious documents that trigger memory access violations, potentially leading to the exposure of confidential information stored in adjacent memory locations.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves improper input validation within the document parsing engine of Microsoft Word applications. When these applications encounter malformed or specially constructed Word documents, the parsing routines fail to properly bounds-check array accesses or buffer operations, allowing attackers to read memory contents beyond intended boundaries. This behavior aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.005 for command and scripting interpreter, as attackers can leverage this vulnerability to gather sensitive information that may include encryption keys, user credentials, or other confidential data stored in memory. The out-of-bounds read can also potentially lead to denial of service conditions, where the application crashes or becomes unresponsive due to memory corruption.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it can enable more sophisticated attacks when combined with other exploitation techniques. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can potentially extract sensitive information from memory segments that contain user credentials, session tokens, or application data, depending on what was loaded into memory at the time of exploitation. The vulnerability affects both desktop and server environments, including Word Automation Services on SharePoint Server 2010 SP2 and Office Web Apps 2010 SP2, making it particularly dangerous for enterprise environments where these technologies are deployed. Organizations using legacy Office versions are especially vulnerable since many of these products have reached end-of-life support status, leaving them exposed to unpatched security flaws.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily involve applying Microsoft security updates and patches, which address the underlying memory access issues in the document parsing components. System administrators should prioritize patching all affected Office versions, particularly in enterprise environments where the risk of exploitation is higher due to the volume of documents processed. Network segmentation and email filtering can provide additional protective layers by limiting the attack surface and preventing malicious documents from reaching end users. Security monitoring should focus on detecting unusual document processing patterns or memory access violations that might indicate exploitation attempts. Organizations should also consider implementing application whitelisting policies to restrict the execution of potentially malicious Office documents, while maintaining regular security assessments to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities in their software inventory. The vulnerability highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and demonstrates how legacy software components can pose significant risks when deployed in modern enterprise environments.