Dear Mr. Poehls, I think Microsoft does not consider metadata attached to a document as part of the document and so they decided not to include it in the content protected by the certificate. This fits the way we use attaching metadata during the process of categorization to enable retrieval of a document by means and taxonomies of the recipient, not of the author. If instead, as you seem to propose, metadata would be treated as part of the document, attaching the metadata needed for retrieval purposes would invalidate the signature of the document. Therefore this time I would go with Microsoft for their solution fits our needs and doesn't compromise the integrity protection of the document itself in any serious way. Just think of it as a sticker placed on the outside of a sealed envelope: You mustn't trust anything on the outside, just look inside the envelope to find the information you can rely on. Yours H.-D. Naujoks TÜV SÜD Informatik und Consulting Services GmbH -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: poehls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:poehls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Gesendet: Mittwoch, 12. Dezember 2007 11:35 An: bugtraq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Betreff: MS Office 2007: Digital Signature does not protect Meta-Data Affects: Microsoft Office 2007 (12.0.6015.5000) MSO (12.0.6017.5000) possibly older versions I. Background Microsoft Office is a suite containing several programs to handle Office documents like text documents or spreadsheets. The latest version uses an XML based document format. Microsoft Office allows documents to be digitally signed by authors using certified keys, allowing viewers to verify the integrity and the origin based on the author's public key. The author's public key certificate, which can come from a trusted third party, is embedded in the signed document. It is XML DSig based. II. Problem Description Microsoft Office documents carry meta data information according to the DublinCore metadata in the file docProps/core.xml . Among these meta data information are the fields "LastModifiedBy", "creator" together with several others that can be displayed/changed through the following menu "Office Button -> Prepare -> Properties". These entries can be changed without invalidating the signature. At least under Windows Operating Systems these information are also shown in the Window's file systems properties. III. Impact The meta data of signed Microsoft Office documents can be changed. An attacker can change the values to spoof the origin of signed documents, hoping to induce trust or otherwise deceive the user. III.1. Proof of Concept Open the OOXML ZIP container of a signed document. Change the values in the docProps/core.xml file. For example set the value between "<dc:creator>*</dc:creator>" to "<dc:creator>FooBar</dc:creator>". The changes will be displayed in the document's properties dialog as described above. The signature will still be valid. IV. Workaround The meta data information of a signed OOXML document can be changed without invalidating the signature, thus information about the real author of a signed document can only be retrieved from the certificate. The signed file's meta data can not be trusted as the meta data is not covered by the signature. V. Solution No possible solution. VI. Correction details A closer look into the references section of the XML signature used by Microsoft Office (stored in the File _xmlsignatures\sig1.xml) reveals that the file core.xml is not in the list of references. Thus it is not covered by the signature. As a solution the scope of the signature needs to be extended to cover all the relevant information contained in the whole document, thus also the meta data in core.xml. Include core.xml, and probably other files in the signature's list of references. VII. Time line 2007-10-24: Vendor contacted 2007-10-25: Vendor acknowledged receipt 2007-11-14: 1st Deadline reached 2007-11-27: Reminder sent 2007-12-12: No response received until today Yours, Henrich C. Poehls, Dong Tran, Finn Petersen, Frederic Pscheid SVS - Dept. of Informatics - University of Hamburg
