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    Symantec Vulnerability Research
    http://www.symantec.com/research
      Security Advisory


Advisory ID   : SYMSA-2006-007
Advisory Title: Microsoft Office Malformed String Parsing
    Vulnerability
Author        : Elia Florio / elia_florio@symantec.com
Release Date  : 07-11-2006
Application   : Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP (2002),
    Office 2003
Platform      : Windows
Severity      : Remotely exploitable / User access
Vendor status : Duplicated and verified by Microsoft,
    patch available
CVE Number    : CVE-2006-1540
Reference     : http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/18889


Overview:

  There exists an overflow condition in Microsoft Office
  when a malformed string included in an Office file is
  parsed by any of the affected Office applications.


Details:

  The problem resides in the code of MSO.DLL, a shared
  library used by Office applications, so the vulnerability
  can be exploited using different attack vectors.
  For example, the vulnerability can be exploited using a
  malformed Excel 2003 file. By changing the size of the
  Unicode "Sheet Name" string with an incorrect size, it is
  possible to generate an integer overflow condition. Excel
  2003 will crash while opening the malformed file due to an
  access violation error with an invalid value of
  EAX=0xFFFFFFFC.

  MOV EDX,DWORD PTR DS:[EAX-4]
  ADD EAX,-4
  ADD EDX,4


Vendor Response:

  The above vulnerability was addressed for the affected
  platforms via Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-38. If
  there are any further questions about this statement,
  please contact secure@microsoft.com.


Recommendation:
  Follow your organization's testing procedures before
  applying patches or workarounds.  Customers should apply
  Microsoft's update as soon as possible.


Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Information:

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned
the following names to these issues.  These are candidates for
inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes
names for security problems.

  CVE-2006-1540


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Copyright (c) 2006 by Symantec Corp.
Permission to redistribute this alert electronically is granted
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