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Secunia Research: Microsoft Excel NAME Record Array Indexing Vulnerability



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                     Secunia Research 09/12/2008

     - Microsoft Excel NAME Record Array Indexing 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 Office Excel 2000 SP3
* Microsoft Office Excel 2002 SP3

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 

"Organize, analyze and present your data with precision and panache."

Product Link:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/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 insufficient validation of an index
value in the NAME record and can be exploited to corrupt memory via a
specially crafted Excel Spreadsheet (XLS) file.

Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code.

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5) Solution 

Apply patches from MS08-074.

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6) Time Table 

02/09/2008 - Vendor notified.
03/09/2008 - Vendor response.
17/09/2008 - Vendor provides status update.
09/12/2008 - Vendor acknowledges that fix will be issued today.
09/12/2008 - Vendor publishes security bulletin.
09/12/2008 - Public disclosure.

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7) Credits 

Discovered by Dyon Balding, Secunia Research.

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8) References

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned 
CVE-2008-4266 for the vulnerability.

MS08-074 (KB959070):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-074.mspx

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9) About Secunia

Secunia offers vulnerability management solutions to corporate
customers with verified and reliable vulnerability intelligence
relevant to their specific system configuration:

http://secunia.com/advisories/business_solutions/

Secunia also provides a publicly accessible and comprehensive advisory
database as a service to the security community and private 
individuals, who are interested in or concerned about IT-security.

http://secunia.com/advisories/

Secunia believes that it is important to support the community and to
do active vulnerability research in order to aid improving the 
security and reliability of software in general:

http://secunia.com/secunia_research/

Secunia regularly hires new skilled team members. Check the URL below
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http://secunia.com/corporate/jobs/

Secunia offers a FREE mailing list called Secunia Security Advisories:

http://secunia.com/advisories/mailing_lists/

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10) Verification 

Please verify this advisory by visiting the Secunia website:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/2008-36/

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

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