US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-167A -- Microsoft Excel Vulnerability

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                        National Cyber Alert System

                Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-167A


Microsoft Excel Vulnerability

   Original release date: June 16, 2006
   Last revised: --
   Source: US-CERT


Systems Affected

     * Microsoft Excel 2003
     * Microsoft Excel XP (2002)
     * Microsoft Excel for Mac

   Microsoft Excel is included with Microsoft Office. Other versions of
   Excel, and other Office programs may be affected or act as attack
   vectors.


Overview

   An unspecified vulnerability in Microsoft Excel could allow an
   attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system.


I. Description

   Microsoft Excel contains an unspecified vulnerability. Opening a
   specially crafted Excel document, including documents hosted on web
   sites or attached to email messages, could trigger the vulnerability.

   Office documents can contain embedded objects. For example, a
   malicious Excel document could be embedded in an Word or PowerPoint
   document. Office documents other than Excel documents could be used as
   attack vectors.

   For more information, please see Vulnerability Note VU#802324.


II. Impact

   By convincing a user to open a specially crafted Excel document, an
   attacker could execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. If the
   user has administrative privileges, the attacker could gain complete
   control of the system.


III. Solution

   At the time of writing, there is no complete solution available.
   Consider the following workarounds:

Do not open untrusted Excel documents

   Do not open unfamiliar or unexpected Excel or other Office documents,
   including those received as email attachments or hosted on a web site.
   Please see Cyber Security Tip ST04-010 for more information.

Do not rely on file extension filtering

   In most cases, Windows will call Excel to open a document even if the
   document has an unknown file extension. For example, if document.x1s
   (note the digit "1") contains the correct file header information,
   Windows will open document.x1s with Excel.


Appendix A. References

     * Vulnerability Note VU#802324 -
       <http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/802324>

     * Cyber Security Tip ST04-010 -
       <http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-010.html>


 ____________________________________________________________________

   Information used in this document came from SANS and Microsoft.
 ____________________________________________________________________

   The most recent version of this document can be found at:

     <http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA06-167A.html>
 ____________________________________________________________________

   Feedback can be directed to US-CERT Technical Staff. Please send
   email to <cert@xxxxxxxx> with "TA06-167A Feedback VU#802324" in the
   subject.
 ____________________________________________________________________

   For instructions on subscribing to or unsubscribing from this
   mailing list, visit <http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/signup.html>.
 ____________________________________________________________________

   Produced 2006 by US-CERT, a government organization.

   Terms of use:

     <http://www.us-cert.gov/legal.html>
 ____________________________________________________________________


Revision History

   June 16, 2006: Initial release





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