Microsoft Internet Explorer up to 6 Cascading Style Sheet heap-based overflow

CVSS Meta Temp Score
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CTI Interest Score
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5.7$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Microsoft Internet Explorer up to 6. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component Cascading Style Sheet Handler. Executing a manipulation can lead to heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2004-0842. The attack can be launched remotely. Moreover, an exploit is present. It is advisable to implement a patch to correct this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Microsoft Internet Explorer up to 6 (Web Browser). This vulnerability affects an unknown part of the component Cascading Style Sheet Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 and earlier, and possibly other versions, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash from "memory corruption") via certain malformed Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) elements that trigger heap-based buffer overflows, as demonstrated using the "<STYLE>@;/*" string, possibly due to a missing comment terminator that may cause an invalid length to trigger a large memory copy operation, aka the "CSS Heap Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

The weakness was disclosed 10/12/2004 by Berend-Jan Wever (SkyLined) with Microsoft as MS04-038 as confirmed bulletin (Technet). The advisory is shared for download at microsoft.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2004-0842 since 09/08/2004. The attack can be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. Technical details are unknown but a public exploit is available.

After before and not just, there has been an exploit disclosed. It is possible to download the exploit at exploit-db.com. It is declared as proof-of-concept. The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 2 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $25k-$100k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 10861 (MS02-005: MSIE 5.01 5.5 6.0 Cumulative Patch (890923)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Windows : Microsoft Bulletins. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 100018 (Microsoft Internet Explorer Multiple Vulnerabilities (MS04-038)).

Applying the patch MS04-038 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Furthermore it is possible to detect and prevent this kind of attack with TippingPoint and the filter 3047.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at X-Force (16675), Exploit-DB (24328), Tenable (10861), SecurityFocus (BID 10816†) and OSVDB (7774†). The entries VDB-3, VDB-45, VDB-257 and VDB-285 are pretty similar. Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

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CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 6.3
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 5.7

VulDB Base Score: 6.3
VulDB Temp Score: 5.7
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

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VulDB Base Score: 🔍
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Exploitinginfo

Class: Heap-based overflow
CWE: CWE-122 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Access: Public
Status: Proof-of-Concept
Download: 🔍

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

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Nessus ID: 10861
Nessus Name: MS02-005: MSIE 5.01 5.5 6.0 Cumulative Patch (890923)
Nessus File: 🔍
Nessus Risk: 🔍
Nessus Family: 🔍

OpenVAS ID: 10861
OpenVAS Name: IE 5.01 5.5 6.0 Cumulative patch (890923)
OpenVAS File: 🔍
OpenVAS Family: 🔍

Qualys ID: 🔍
Qualys Name: 🔍

Exploit-DB: 🔍

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
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Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Patch
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Patch: MS04-038
TippingPoint: 🔍

McAfee IPS: 🔍
McAfee IPS Version: 🔍

ISS Proventia IPS: 🔍
PaloAlto IPS: 🔍

Timelineinfo

07/11/2004 🔍
07/13/2004 +2 days 🔍
07/28/2004 +14 days 🔍
09/08/2004 +42 days 🔍
10/12/2004 +34 days 🔍
10/12/2004 +0 days 🔍
10/12/2004 +0 days 🔍
10/13/2004 +1 days 🔍
10/14/2004 +1 days 🔍
12/23/2004 +70 days 🔍
11/03/2005 +315 days 🔍
09/16/2025 +7257 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: microsoft.com

Advisory: MS04-038
Researcher: Berend-Jan Wever (SkyLined)
Organization: Microsoft
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2004-0842 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2004-0842
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-892

OVAL: 🔍

CERT: 🔍
X-Force: 16675 - Microsoft Internet Explorer popup.show allows attacker to perform actions, Medium Risk
SecurityFocus: 10816 - Microsoft Internet Explorer Style Tag Comment Memory Corruption Vulnerability
Secunia: 12806 - Internet Explorer Multiple Vulnerabilities, Extremely Critical
OSVDB: 7774 - Microsoft IE Popup.show() Click Hijack (HijackClick 3)
SecuriTeam: securiteam.com
Vulnerability Center: 5541 - [MS04-040] DoS in Internet Explorer <= 6.1 SP1 via Style Tag, Critical

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

Entryinfo

Created: 10/14/2004 11:45
Updated: 09/16/2025 14:33
Changes: 10/14/2004 11:45 (98), 04/07/2017 12:00 (5), 03/10/2021 06:31 (7), 03/10/2021 06:34 (1), 01/02/2025 18:40 (15), 09/16/2025 14:33 (3)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216:C5B:103

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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