Microsoft Office 2000/2003/2004/Xp excel.exe code injection

CVSS Meta Temp Score
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CTI Interest Score
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9.5$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Microsoft Office 2000/2003/2004/Xp. This impacts an unknown function in the library mso.dll of the file excel.exe. The manipulation leads to code injection. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2006-1540. In addition, an exploit is available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Microsoft Office 2000/2003/2004/Xp (Office Suite Software). This issue affects some unknown functionality in the library mso.dll of the file excel.exe. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a code injection vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-94. The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

MSO.DLL in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP (2002), and Office 2003 allows user-assisted attackers to cause a denial of service and execute arbitrary code via multiple attack vectors, as originally demonstrated using a crafted document record with a malformed string, as demonstrated by replacing a certain "01 00 00 00" byte sequence with an "FF FF FF FF" byte sequence, possibly causing an invalid array index, in (1) an Excel .xls document, which triggers an access violation in ole32.dll; (2) an Excel .xlw document, which triggers an access violation in excel.exe; (3) a Word document, which triggers an access violation in mso.dll in winword.exe; and (4) a PowerPoint document, which triggers an access violation in powerpnt.txt. NOTE: after the initial disclosure, this issue was demonstrated by triggering an integer overflow using an inconsistent size for a Unicode "Sheet Name" string.

The bug was discovered 03/31/2006. The weakness was presented 02/12/2006 by Elia Florio with Symantec (Website). It is possible to read the advisory at us-cert.gov. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2006-1540 since 03/30/2006. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details as well as a public exploit are known. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1059 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

After even before and not, there has been an exploit disclosed. The exploit is available at exploit-db.com. It is declared as attacked. The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 2442 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $25k-$100k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 22025 (MS06-037 / MS06-038: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel and Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (917284 / 917285) (Mac OS X)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family MacOS X Local Security Checks and running in the context l. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 110035 (Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (MS06-038)).

Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem. A possible mitigation has been published 6 months after the disclosure of the vulnerability. Attack attempts may be identified with Snort ID 7197. Furthermore it is possible to detect and prevent this kind of attack with TippingPoint and the filter 4526.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (25678), Exploit-DB (1615), Zero-Day.cz (394), Tenable (22025) and SecurityFocus (BID 18889†). See VDB-2324, VDB-2367, VDB-31318 and VDB-31317 for similar entries. Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

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CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
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CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 10.0
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 9.5

VulDB Base Score: 10.0
VulDB Temp Score: 9.5
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

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VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
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Exploitinginfo

Class: Code injection
CWE: CWE-94 / CWE-74 / CWE-707
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Access: Public
Status: Attacked
Download: 🔍

EPSS Score: 🔍
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Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

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Nessus ID: 22025
Nessus Name: MS06-037 / MS06-038: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel and Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (917284 / 917285) (Mac OS X)
Nessus File: 🔍
Nessus Risk: 🔍
Nessus Family: 🔍
Nessus Context: 🔍

Qualys ID: 🔍
Qualys Name: 🔍

Exploit-DB: 🔍
Zero-Day.cz: 🔍

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
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Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Patch
Status: 🔍

Reaction Time: 🔍
0-Day Time: 🔍
Exposure Time: 🔍
Snort ID: 7197
TippingPoint: 🔍

McAfee IPS: 🔍
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PaloAlto IPS: 🔍
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Timelineinfo

06/07/1999 🔍
02/12/2006 +2442 days 🔍
02/12/2006 +0 days 🔍
03/27/2006 +42 days 🔍
03/30/2006 +3 days 🔍
03/30/2006 +0 days 🔍
03/31/2006 +1 days 🔍
03/31/2006 +0 days 🔍
04/13/2006 +13 days 🔍
07/11/2006 +88 days 🔍
07/11/2006 +0 days 🔍
07/11/2006 +0 days 🔍
07/11/2006 +0 days 🔍
07/12/2006 +1 days 🔍
03/12/2015 +3165 days 🔍
01/20/2025 +3602 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: microsoft.com

Advisory: us-cert.gov
Researcher: Elia Florio
Organization: Symantec
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2006-1540 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2006-1540
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-29423

OVAL: 🔍

CERT: 🔍
X-Force: 25678
SecurityFocus: 18889 - Microsoft Office Malformed String Parsing Code Execution Vulnerability
Secunia: 21012 - Microsoft Office String and Property Parsing Vulnerabilities, Highly Critical
OSVDB: 24595 - Microsoft Office Malformed BIFF Record Multiple File Format Processing DoS
SecurityTracker: 1015855
Vulnerability Center: 12231 - [MS06-038] Microsoft Office Denial of Service via \, Medium
Vupen: ADV-2006-2756

scip Labs: https://www.scip.ch/en/?labs.20161013
See also: 🔍

Entryinfo

Created: 03/12/2015 12:19
Updated: 01/20/2025 07:02
Changes: 03/12/2015 12:19 (101), 06/22/2019 10:12 (3), 06/20/2024 04:28 (17), 07/22/2024 02:20 (10), 01/20/2025 07:02 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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