Microsoft Excel up to 2019 memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Microsoft Excel up to 2019. This affects an unknown function. This manipulation causes memory corruption. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2020-1335. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Microsoft Excel up to 2019 (Spreadsheet Software). It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

<p>A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Excel software when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.</p> <p>Exploitation of the vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted file with an affected version of Microsoft Excel. In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending the specially crafted file to the user and convincing the user to open the file. In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website (or leverage a compromised website that accepts or hosts user-provided content) containing a specially crafted file designed to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit the website. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to click a link, typically by way of an enticement in an email or instant message, and then convince them to open the specially crafted file.</p> <p>The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Microsoft Excel handles objects in memory.</p>

The weakness was disclosed 09/08/2020 as confirmed security update guide (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at portal.msrc.microsoft.com. The public release has been coordinated in cooperation with Microsoft. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2020-1335. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The advisory points out:

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Excel software when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem. A possible mitigation has been published immediately after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Type

• Spreadsheet Software

Vendor

• Microsoft

Name

• Excel

Version

• 365 Apps for Enterprise
• 2010 SP2
• 2013 RT SP1
• 2013 SP1
• 2016
• 2019

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.microsoft.com/

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