http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Securi
ty/Microsoft-Confirms-Jet-DB-Flaw-MS-Word-Attacks/
By Ryan Naraine
eWEEK.com
2008-03-24
Attackers are exploiting a buffer overrun vulnerability in
the
lightweight database that provides data access to Microsoft
Access,
Visual Basic and third-party applications.
An unpatched security flaw in Microsoft's Jet Database
Engine is being
used to launch targeted attacks against Windows users,
according to an
advisory from the software vendor.
The attacks, described by Microsoft as "very
limited," are exploiting a
buffer overrun vulnerability in the lightweight database
that provides
data access to applications such as Microsoft Access,
Microsoft Visual
Basic and third-party applications
Technical details on this zero-day vulnerability are not yet
available
but it is common knowledge that the Jet DB engine has
suffered from
major security issues over the last few years.
In fact, proof-of-concept exploit code targeting multiple
Jet database
engine flaws has been available on the Internet since April
2005. The
public exploit code affects the same "msjet40.dll"
component referenced
in Microsoft's pre-patch advisory.
"If the version of Msjet40.dll is lower than
4.0.9505.0, you have a
vulnerable version of the Microsoft Jet Database
Engine," Microsoft
warned.
Although publicly known Jet DB flaws have remained unpatched
for years,
Microsoft said customers running Windows Server 2003 Service
Pack 2,
Windows Vista, and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 are not
vulnerable to
this issue. This suggests the vulnerability was silently
fixedwithout
public documentationin recent service packs.
According to Microsoft's advisory, an attacker could host a
Web site
that contains a specially crafted Word document to trigger
the
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," the company said, noting
that an attacker
would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites.
This suggests that social engineering lures are being used
in the
targeted attacks. These could include links spammed via
e-mail, or sent
via instant messenger chat sessions.
SOFTWARE AFFECTED BY THIS ISSUE:
* Microsoft Word 2000 Service Pack 3
* Microsoft Word 2002 Service Pack 3
* Microsoft Word 2003 Service Pack 2
* Microsoft Word 2003 Service Pack 3
* Microsoft Word 2007
* Microsoft Word 2007 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft
Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
NOT AFFECTED BY THIS ISSUE:
* Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2
* Windows Vista
* Windows Vista Service Pack 1
In the absence of a patch, Microsoft recommends:
* Restricting the Microsoft Jet Database Engine from
running
* Blocking MDB files from being processed through your
mail
infrastructure.
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