iDefense Security Advisory 08.10.10
http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/
Aug 10, 2010

I. BACKGROUND

Microsoft Word is a word processing application from Microsoft Office.
For more information about Microsoft Word, see the following website:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/default.aspx

Rich-Text Format (RTF) is a document file format developed by Microsoft
for cross-platform document interchange.

II. DESCRIPTION

Remote exploitation of an memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft's
Office RTF Parsing Engine could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary
code with the privileges of the current user.

During the processing of a RTF document containing certain control
words, the RTF parsing engine may incorrectly read a value from the RTF
file. This value may directly affect the control of execution flow
within the RTF parsing engine.

III. ANALYSIS

Exploitation of this vulnerability results in the execution of arbitrary
code with the privileges of the user who opened a malicious RTF document
with Microsoft Office.

To exploit this vulnerability, a targeted user must load a malicious RTF
file created by an attacker, or simply receive an email containing
malicious RTF content. An attacker typically accomplishes this via
social engineering or injecting content into a compromised, trusted
site.

IV. DETECTION

iDefense has confirmed the existence of this vulnerability in Microsoft
Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007, and Microsoft Outlook 2007. A full list
of vulnerable Microsoft products can be found in Microsoft Security
Bulletin MS10-056.

V. WORKAROUND

Microsoft suggested workarounds can be found in Microsoft Security
Bulletin MS10-056.

VI. VENDOR RESPONSE

Microsoft Corp. has released patches which address this issue.
Information about downloadable vendor updates can be found by clicking
on the URLs shown.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS10-056.mspx

VII. CVE INFORMATION

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
name CVE-2010-1901 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in
the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for
security problems.

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE

08/11/2009  Initial Vendor Notification
08/11/2009  Initial Vendor Reply
08/10/2010  Coordinated Public Disclosure

IX. CREDIT

This vulnerability was reported to iDefense by wushi of team509.

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X. LEGAL NOTICES

Copyright © 2010 iDefense, Inc.

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Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate
at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use
of the information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition.
 There are no warranties with regard to this information. Neither the
author nor the publisher accepts any liability for any direct,
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reliance on, this information.