CVE-2017-0254 in Office
Summary
by MITRE
Microsoft Word 2007, Office 2010 SP2, Word 2010 SP2, Office Compatibility Pack SP3, Office for Mac 2011, Office for Mac 2016, Microsoft Office Web Apps 2010 SP2, Office Web Apps Server 2013 SP1, Word 2013 RT SP1, Word 2013 SP1, Word Automation Services on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 SP1, Office Word Viewer, SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016, and Word 2016 allow a remote code execution vulnerability when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory, aka "Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability". This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2017-0264 and CVE-2017-0265.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/22/2020
The vulnerability described in CVE-2017-0254 represents a critical memory corruption flaw affecting multiple Microsoft Office products including Word 2007 through Word 2016 across various platforms and server environments. This vulnerability falls under the broader category of memory safety issues that have historically been among the most dangerous classes of software defects due to their potential for remote code execution. The flaw specifically manifests when Microsoft Office applications fail to properly validate and handle objects in memory during document processing operations, creating opportunities for attackers to manipulate memory structures and execute arbitrary code on vulnerable systems.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-125, which describes out-of-bounds read conditions where applications access memory locations beyond the intended boundaries. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious Word documents that contain specially formatted objects designed to trigger memory corruption when processed by vulnerable Office applications. The exploitation typically involves manipulating document structures such as embedded objects, tables, or formatting elements that are parsed by Office's rendering engines. When these malformed objects are processed, they cause the application to write data beyond allocated memory buffers or read from invalid memory locations, potentially leading to controlled memory corruption that can be leveraged for privilege escalation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends across enterprise environments where Microsoft Office remains the dominant document processing platform, affecting organizations that rely on SharePoint Server, Office Web Apps, and various Office versions across different operating systems. The vulnerability's broad scope includes both desktop and server deployments, making it particularly dangerous for organizations with extensive Microsoft Office ecosystems. Security researchers have identified that successful exploitation could allow remote attackers to execute code with the privileges of the logged-on user, potentially leading to full system compromise, data exfiltration, or lateral movement within network environments. The vulnerability's presence in Office Word Viewer and SharePoint Server 2016 versions demonstrates its widespread impact across Microsoft's productivity suite and collaboration platforms.
Organizations should implement layered mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability, beginning with immediate deployment of Microsoft's security patches and updates released as part of their regular security updates cycle. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this type of vulnerability under T1059 for command and scripting interpreter and T1068 for exploit for privilege escalation, highlighting the need for comprehensive endpoint protection measures. Network segmentation and email filtering controls should be strengthened to prevent delivery of malicious documents, while privileged account protection measures including multi-factor authentication and principle of least privilege should be enforced. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing application whitelisting policies to restrict execution of Office applications from untrusted sources and enable automatic updates for all Office components to ensure timely patch deployment. Security monitoring should focus on detecting anomalous Office application behavior, unusual memory access patterns, and potential exploitation attempts through network traffic analysis and endpoint detection and response solutions.