Secunia Research: Microsoft Excel String Parsing Uninitialised Variable Vulnerability

[Secunia Research <remove-vuln () secunia com>]

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                     Secunia Research 08/06/2010

                  - Microsoft Excel String Parsing -
               - Uninitialised Variable Vulnerability -

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Table of Contents

Affected Software....................................................1
Severity.............................................................2
Vendor's Description of Software.....................................3
Description of Vulnerability.........................................4
Solution.............................................................5
Time Table...........................................................6
Credits..............................................................7
References...........................................................8
About Secunia........................................................9
Verification........................................................10

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1) Affected Software 

* Microsoft Excel 2002

NOTE: Other versions may also be affected.

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2) Severity 

Rating: Highly critical
Impact: System compromise
Where:  Remote

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3) Vendor's Description of Software 

"Microsoft Office Excel is a powerful tool you can use to create and
format spreadsheets, and analyze and share information to make more 
informed decisions.".

Product Link:
http://office.microsoft.com/excel

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4) Description of Vulnerability

Secunia Research has discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft Excel, 
which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's 
system.
 
The vulnerability is caused due to an uninitialised variable being 
used as size argument when copying data during parsing of certain 
record types. This can be exploited to corrupt memory via a specially
crafted file.

Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code.
 
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5) Solution 

Apply patches from MS10-038.

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6) Time Table 

21/12/2009 - Vendor notified.
21/12/2009 - Vendor response.
11/01/2010 - Status update requested.
12/01/2010 - Vendor provides status update.
12/04/2010 - Status update requested.
12/04/2010 - Vendor provides status update.
27/04/2010 - Vendor provides status update.
08/06/2010 - Public disclosure.

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7) Credits 

Discovered by Carsten Eiram, Secunia Research.

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8) References

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned 
CVE-2010-1252 for the vulnerability.

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9) About Secunia

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10) Verification 

Please verify this advisory by visiting the Secunia website:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/2009-59/

Complete list of vulnerability reports published by Secunia Research:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/

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