Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-037 - Critical

Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 Could Allow Remote Code Execution (936548)

Published: Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Version: 1.0

General Information

Executive Summary

This important security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability. This vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a specially crafted Microsoft Office Publisher file. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability.

This is an important security update for supported releases of Microsoft Office Publisher 2007. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

This security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way that Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 handles malformed .pub files. For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

Recommendation. Microsoft recommends that customers should apply the update at the earliest opportunity.

Known Issues. None

Affected and Non-Affected Software

The software listed here has been tested to determine which versions or editions are affected. Other versions or editions are either past their support life cycle or are not affected. To determine the support life cycle for your software version or edition, visit Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

Affected Software

Office Suite and Other Affected Software	Component	Maximum Security Impact	Aggregate Severity Rating	Bulletins Replaced by This Update
2007 Microsoft Office System	Microsoft Office Publisher 2007	Remote Code Execution	Important	None

Non-Affected Software

Office Suite	Application
Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3	Microsoft Publisher 2000
Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3	Microsoft Publisher 2002
Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2	Microsoft Publisher 2003

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Related to This Security Update

Vulnerability Information

Severity Ratings and Vulnerability Identifiers

Vulnerability Severity Rating and Maximum Security Impact by Affected Software
Affected Software	Publisher Invalid Memory Reference Vulnerability – CVE-2007-1754	Aggregate Severity Rating
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007	Important Remote Code Execution	Important

Publisher Invalid Memory Reference Vulnerability – CVE-2007-1754

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way Publisher does not adequately clear out memory resources when writing application data from disk to memory. An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by constructing a specially crafted Publisher (.pub) page. When a user views the .pub page, the vulnerability could allow remote code execution. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system.

To view this vulnerability as a standard entry in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list, see CVE-2007-1754.

Mitigating Factors for Publisher Invalid Memory Reference Vulnerability – CVE-2007-1754

Workarounds for Publisher Invalid Memory Reference Vulnerability – CVE-2007-1754

FAQ for Publisher Invalid Memory Reference Vulnerability – CVE-2007-1754

What is the scope of the vulnerability?
If successfully exploited, this remote code execution vulnerability could allow the attacker to run arbitrary code as the logged-on user.

What causes the vulnerability?
Publisher does not correctly validate memory values read from a malformed file.

What might an attacker use the vulnerability to do?
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could make changes to the system with the permissions of the logged-on user. If a user is logged in with administrative user rights, an attacker could take complete control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights

How could an attacker exploit the vulnerability?
This vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted Publisher file with an affected version of Microsoft Office Publisher.

In an e-mail attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending a specially-crafted file to the user and by convincing the user to open the file.

In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker would have to host a Web site that contains a Publisher file that is used to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit a specially crafted Web site. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade them to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link that takes them to the attacker's site.

What systems are primarily at risk from the vulnerability?
Systems where Microsoft Publisher is used are primarily at risk. Servers could be at more risk if administrators allow users to log on to servers and to run programs. However, best practices strongly discourage allowing this.

What does the update do?
The update removes the vulnerability by correctly validating memory values read from a file.

When this security bulletin was issued, had this vulnerability been publicly disclosed?
No. Microsoft received information about this vulnerability through responsible disclosure. Microsoft had not received any information to indicate that this vulnerability had been publicly disclosed when this security bulletin was originally issued.

When this security bulletin was issued, had Microsoft received any reports that this vulnerability was being exploited?
No. Microsoft had not received any information to indicate that this vulnerability had been publicly used to attack customers and had not seen any examples of proof of concept code published when this security bulletin was originally issued.

Update Information

Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance

Manage the software and security updates you need to deploy to the servers, desktop, and mobile systems in your organization. For more information see the TechNet Update Management Center. The Microsoft TechNet Security Web site provides additional information about security in Microsoft products.

Security updates are available from Microsoft Update, Windows Update, and Office Update. Security updates are also available at the Microsoft Download Center. You can find them most easily by doing a keyword search for "security_patch." Finally, security updates can be downloaded from the Windows Update Catalog. For more information about the Windows Update Catalog, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 323166.

Detection and Deployment Guidance

Microsoft has provided detection and deployment guidance for this month’s security updates. This guidance will also help IT professionals understand how they can use various tools to help deploy the security update, such as Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Office Update, the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA), the Office Detection Tool, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), the Extended Security Update Inventory Tool, and the Enterprise Update Scan Tool (EST). For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 910723.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) allows administrators to scan local and remote systems for missing security updates as well as common security misconfigurations. For more information about MBSA visit Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer Web site. The following table provides the MBSA detection summary for this security update.

Software	MBSA 1.2.1	MBSA 2.0.1
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007	Yes	Yes

For more information about MBSA, visit the MBSA Web site. For more information about the software that Microsoft Update and MBSA 2.0 currently do not detect, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 895660.

Note MBSA 1.2.1 uses an integrated version of the Office Detection Tool (ODT) which does not support remote scans of this security update. For more information about MBSA, visit the MBSA Web site.

Windows Server Update Services

By using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), administrators can deploy the latest critical updates and security updates for Windows 2000 operating systems and later, Office XP and later, Exchange Server 2003, and SQL Server 2000 to Windows 2000 and later operating systems. For more information about how to deploy this security update using Windows Server Update Services, visit the Windows Server Update Services Web site.

Systems Management Server

The following table provides the SMS detection and deployment summary for this security update.

Software	SMS 2.0	SMS 2003
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007	Yes	Yes

SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003 Software Update Services (SUS) Feature Pack can use MBSA 1.2.1 for detection and therefore have the same limitation that is listed earlier in this bulletin related to programs that MBSA 1.2.1 does not detect.

For SMS 2.0, the SMS SUS Feature Pack, which includes the Security Update Inventory Tool (SUIT), can be used by SMS to detect security updates. SMS SUIT uses the MBSA 1.2.1 engine for detection. For more information about SUIT, visit the following Microsoft Web site. For more information about the limitations of SUIT, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 306460. The SMS SUS Feature Pack also includes the Microsoft Office Inventory Tool to detect required updates for Microsoft Office applications.

For SMS 2003, the SMS 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU) can be used by SMS to detect security updates that are offered by Microsoft Update and that are supported by Windows Server Update Services. For more information about the SMS 2003 ITMU, visit the following Microsoft Web site. SMS 2003 can also use the Microsoft Office Inventory Tool to detect required updates for Microsoft Office applications.

For more information about SMS, visit the SMS Web site.

Office Administrative Installation Point

If you installed your application from a server location, the server administrator must update the server location with the administrative update and deploy that update to your system.

For supported versions of Microsoft Office 2000, see How to Create an Administrative Installation Point. For more information about how to change the source for a client system from an updated administrative installation point to an Office 2000 original baseline source or Service Pack 3 (SP3), see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 932889.

Note. If you plan to manage software updates centrally from an updated administrative image, you can find more information in the article Updating Office 2000 Clients from a Patched Administrative Image.
For supported versions of Microsoft Office XP, see Creating an Administrative Installation Point. For more information on how to change the source for a client system from an updated administrative installation point to an Office XP original baseline source or Service Pack 3 (SP3), see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 922665.

Note. If you plan to manage software updates centrally from an updated administrative image, you can find more information in the article Updating Office XP Clients from a Patched Administrative Image.
For supported versions of Microsoft Office 2003, see Creating an Administrative Installation Point. If you have an Administrative Installation Point with a non-supported version of Microsoft Office 2003, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 902349.

Note. If you plan to manage software updates centrally from an updated administrative image, you can find more information in the article Distributing Office 2003 Product Updates.
For supported versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, see Create a network installation point for the 2007 Office system.

Note. If you plan to manage security updates centrally use Windows Server Update Services. For more information about how to deploy security updates for the 2007 Microsoft Office system using Windows Server Update Services, visit the Windows Server Update Services Web site

Security Update Deployment


Inclusion in Future Service Packs	The update for this issue may be included in a future update rollup
Deployment
Installing without user intervention	publisher2007-kb936646-fullfile-x86-glb.exe /passive
Installing without restarting	publisher2007-kb936646-fullfile-x86-glb.exe /norestart
Update log file	Users can enable verbose logging by using the /log switch see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 912203 for more details.
Further information	See the subsection, Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance.
Restart Requirement
Restart required	This update does not require a restart.
Hotpatching	Not applicable
Removal Information	Use Add or Remove Programs tool in Control Panel.
File Information	See the subsection, File Information, in this section for the full file manifest
Registry Key Verification	Not applicable

File Name	Version	Date	Time	Size
Mspub.exe	12.0.6023.5000	26-May-2007	03:04	9,585,024
Pubconv.dll	12.0.6023.5000	23-May-2007	22:52	592,784

Supported Security Update Installation Switches
Switch	Description
/extract:[path]	Extracts the content of the package to the path folder. If a path is not specified, then a Browse dialog box appears.
/log:[path to log file]	Enables verbose logging for the update installation.
/lang:lcid	Sets the user interface to the specified locale when multiple locales are available in the package.
/quiet	Runs the package in silent mode.
/passive	Runs the update without any interaction from the user.
/norestart	Prevents prompting of the user when a restart of the computer is needed.
/forcerestart	Forces a restart of the computer as soon as the update is finished.
/?, /h, /help	Shows this help message.
/extract:[path]	Extracts the content of the package to the path folder. If a path is not specified, then a Browse dialog box appears.
/log:[path to log file]	Enables verbose logging for the update installation.
/lang:lcid	Sets the user interface to the specified locale when multiple locales are available in the package.

Other Information

Acknowledgments

Microsoft thanks the following for working with us to help protect customers:

eEye for reporting the Publisher Invalid Memory Reference Vulnerability - CVE-2007-1754.

Support

Customers in the U.S. and Canada can receive technical support from Microsoft Product Support Services at 1-866-PCSAFETY. There is no charge for support calls that are associated with security updates.
International customers can receive support from their local Microsoft subsidiaries. There is no charge for support that is associated with security updates. For more information about how to contact Microsoft for support issues, visit the International Support Web site.

Disclaimer

The information provided in the Microsoft Knowledge Base is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Microsoft disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply.

Revisions

V1.0 (July 10, 2007): Bulletin published.