Microsoft Word Smart Tag Invalid Length Processing Vulnerability

Secunia ID	SA30975
CVE-ID	CVE-2008-2244
Release Date	09 Jul 2008
Last Change	12 Aug 2008
Criticality	Extremely Critical Typically used for remotely exploitable vulnerabilities that can lead to system compromise. Successful exploitation does not normally require any interaction and exploits are in the wild. These vulnerabilities can exist in services like FTP, HTTP, and SMTP or in certain client systems like email programs or browsers.
Solution Status	Vendor Patch
Software	Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition Microsoft Office 2003 Standard Edition Microsoft Office 2003 Student and Teacher Edition Microsoft Office XP Microsoft Word 2002 Microsoft Word 2003
Where	From remote "From remote" describes other vulnerabilities where the attack vector doesn't require access to the system or a local network. This category covers services that are acceptable to expose to the Internet (e.g. HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP). It also covers client applications used on the Internet and certain vulnerabilities where it is reasonable to assume that a security conscious user can be tricked into performing certain actions.
Impact	System access This covers vulnerabilities where malicious people are able to gain system access and execute arbitrary code with the privileges of a local user.
Description	A vulnerability has been discovered in Microsoft Word, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system. The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the processing of smart tag length values, which can be exploited to cause memory corruption via a specially crafted document. Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code. NOTE: According to the vendor, the vulnerability is currently being actively exploited.
Solution	Apply patches. Microsoft Word 2002 SP3: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=c7146dfc-e1be-4d13-877b-1d9bcacc4a64 Microsoft Word 2003 SP2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=13a37b76-9fec-426f-8176-3c95f934efe0 Microsoft Word 2003 SP3: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=13a37b76-9fec-426f-8176-3c95f934efe0
Reported by	Reported as a 0-day.
Original Advisory	MS08-042 (KB955048): http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-042.mspx Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/953635.mspx