Security Bulletin

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-077 - Important

Published: December 09, 2008

Version: 1.0

This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker bypasses authentication by browsing to an administrative URL on a SharePoint site. A successful attack leading to elevation of privilege could result in denial of service or information disclosure.

This security update is rated Important for all supported editions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Search Server 2008. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

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

Known Issues. Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 957175 documents the currently known issues that customers may experience when installing this security update. The article also documents recommended solutions for these issues.

The following software have 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

*Includes Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express (32-bit) 

**Includes Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express (64-bit) 

Non-Affected Software

Where are the file information details? 
The file information details can be found in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 957175.

I am using an older release of the software discussed in this security bulletin. What should I do? 
The affected software listed in this bulletin have been tested to determine which releases are affected. Other releases are past their support life cycle. To determine the support life cycle for your software release, visit Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

It should be a priority for customers who have older releases of the software to migrate to supported releases to prevent potential exposure to vulnerabilities. For more information about the Windows Product Lifecycle, visit Microsoft Support Lifecycle. For more information about the extended security update support period for these software versions or editions, visit Microsoft Product Support Services.

Customers who require custom support for older releases must contact their Microsoft account team representative, their Technical Account Manager, or the appropriate Microsoft partner representative for custom support options. Customers without an Alliance, Premier, or Authorized Contract can contact their local Microsoft sales office. For contact information, visit Microsoft Worldwide Information, select the country, and then click Go to see a list of telephone numbers. When you call, ask to speak with the local Premier Support sales manager. For more information, see the Windows Operating System Product Support Lifecycle FAQ.

*Includes Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express (32-bit) 

**Includes Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express (64-bit) 

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker bypasses authentication by browsing to an administrative URL on a SharePoint site. A successful attack leading to elevation of privilege could result in denial of service or information disclosure.

To view this vulnerability as a standard entry in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list, see CVE-2008-4032.

Microsoft has not identified any mitigating factors for this vulnerability.

Workaround refers to a setting or configuration change that does not correct the underlying vulnerability but would help block known attack vectors before you apply the update. Microsoft has tested the following workarounds and states in the discussion whether a workaround reduces functionality:

• Block malicious HTTP requests using a firewall

  Configure your firewall, such as Microsoft ISA Server, to block all HTTP requests to your SharePoint site that contain "mode=ssp" in the URL, but do not contain "/ssp/admin/_layouts" in the URL.

What is the scope of the vulnerability? 
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1 that could allow an unauthenticated user to browse to a section of the SharePoint server intended to perform a subset of administrative functions. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause denial of service by executing commands that would cause load on the server; an attacker could also gain sensitive information from the Microsoft Office SharePoint Services, such as internal path names and users' email addresses, and create scripts that would run in the context of the site.

What causes the vulnerability? 
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 incorrectly handles access control on a subset of administrative functions.

What might an attacker use the vulnerability to do? 
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain elevation of privilege on an affected system, causing denial of service by executing commands that would cause load on the server; an attacker could also gain sensitive information from the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 such as internal path names and users' email addresses.

How could an attacker exploit the vulnerability? 
An attacker could attempt to exploit this vulnerability by using a web browser to bypass authentication by browsing to a vulnerable section of the SharePoint server intended to perform a subset of administrative functions.

What systems are primarily at risk from the vulnerability? 
Servers that are running Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1 and the workstations that are connected to these servers are primarily at risk of attacks resulting in elevation of privilege. On servers running a vulnerable SharePoint Server, an elevation of privilege could result in a denial of service. On workstations where users are accessing a vulnerable SharePoint site, an elevation of privilege could result in information disclosure.

What does the update do? 
This update modifies the way Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 handles authentication for the affected subset of administrative functions.

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.

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 from the Microsoft Download Center. You can find them most easily by doing a keyword search for "security update."

Finally, security updates can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog. The Microsoft Update Catalog provides a searchable catalog of content made available through Windows Update and Microsoft Update, including security updates, drivers and service packs. By searching using the security bulletin number (such as, “MS07-036”), you can add all of the applicable updates to your basket (including different languages for an update), and download to the folder of your choosing. For more information about the Microsoft Update Catalog, see the Microsoft Update Catalog FAQ.

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), and the Extended Security Update Inventory Tool. 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.

The following table provides the MBSA detection summary for this security update.

For more information about MBSA 2.1, see MBSA 2.1 Frequently Asked Questions.

Note For customers using legacy software not supported by MBSA 2.1, Microsoft Update, and Windows Server Update Services: please visit Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and reference the Legacy Product Support section on how to create comprehensive security update detection with legacy tools.

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. 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.

For SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003, the SMS SUS Feature Pack (SUSFP), which includes the Security Update Inventory Tool (SUIT), can be used by SMS to detect security updates. See also Downloads for Systems Management Server 2.0.

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, see SMS 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates. SMS 2003 can also use the Microsoft Office Inventory Tool to detect required updates for Microsoft Office applications. For more information about the Office Inventory Tool and other scanning tools, see SMS 2003 Software Update Scanning Tools. See also Downloads for Systems Management Server 2003.

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 uses WSUS 3.0 for detection of updates. For more information about Configuration Manager 2007 Software Update Management, visit System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

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

For more detailed information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 910723: Summary list of monthly detection and deployment guidance articles.

Note for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 The detection table described above is based on single-server Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployments. The detection tools do not detect the applicability of the update on systems configured as part of a multiple-system SharePoint server farms. For more information about deploying updates on both stand-alone and multi server configurations, see Deploy software updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Update Compatibility Evaluator and Application Compatibility Toolkit

Updates often write to the same files and registry settings required for your applications to run. This can trigger incompatibilities and increase the time it takes to deploy security updates. You can streamline testing and validating Windows updates against installed applications with the Update Compatibility Evaluator components included with Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0.

The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Microsoft Windows Vista, a Windows Update, a Microsoft Security Update, or a new version of Windows Internet Explorer in your environment.

Affected Software

For information about the specific security update for your affected software, click the appropriate link:

Reference Table

The following table contains the security update information for this software. You can find additional information in the subsection, Deployment Information, in this section.

Installing the Update

You can install the update from the appropriate download link in the Affected and Non-Affected Software section. If you installed your application from a server location, the server administrator must instead update the server location with the administrative update and deploy that update to your system. For more information about Administrative Installation Points, refer to the Office Administrative Installation Point information in the Detection and deployment Tools and Guidance subsection.

This security update requires that Windows Installer 3.1 or later be installed on the system.

To install the 3.1 or later version of Windows Installer, visit one of the following Microsoft Web sites:

• Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable for Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP
• Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000

For more information about the terminology that appears in this bulletin, such as hotfix, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 824684.

This security update supports the following setup switches.

Note You can combine these switches into one command. For backward compatibility, the security update also supports many of the setup switches that the earlier version of the Setup program uses. For more information about the supported installation switches, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 262841.

Removing the Update

This security update cannot be removed.

Verifying that the Update Has Been Applied

• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

  To verify that a security update has been applied to an affected system, you may be able to use the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) tool. See the section, Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance, earlier in this bulletin for more information.

• File Version Verification

  Because there are several editions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your system. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

  1. Click Start and then enter an update file name in Start Search.
  2. When the file appears under Programs, right-click on the file name and click Properties.
  3. Under the General tab, compare the file size with the file information tables provided in the bulletin KB article.
  4. You may also click on the Details tab and compare information, such as file version and date modified, with the file information tables provided in the bulletin KB article.
  5. Finally, you may also click on the Previous Versions tab and compare file information for the previous version of the file with the file information for the new, or updated, version of the file.

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

• An anonymous finder for reporting the Access Control Vulnerability (CVE-2008-4032).

To improve security protections for customers, Microsoft provides vulnerability information to major security software providers in advance of each monthly security update release. Security software providers can then use this vulnerability information to provide updated protections to customers via their security software or devices, such as antivirus, network-based intrusion detection systems, or host-based intrusion prevention systems. To determine whether active protections are available from security software providers, please visit the active protections Web sites provided by program partners, listed in Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) Partners.

• 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.

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.

• V1.0 (December 9, 2008): Bulletin published.

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