Memory corruption in Microsoft products - CVE-2009-3129
Published: March 21, 2017 / Updated: October 9, 2021
Vulnerability identifier: #VU6141
CSH Severity: High
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/U:Amber
CVE-ID: CVE-2009-3129
CWE-ID: CWE-119
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
The vulnerability is being exploited in the wild
Vendor: Microsoft
Affected software:
Excel Viewer
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office for macOS
Microsoft Office
Excel Viewer
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office for macOS
Microsoft Office
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system.
The weakness exists due to boundary error when parsing of the Excel spreadsheet file format. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted .xls file containing a malformed record object, trick the victim into opening it, trigger Featheader record memory corruption and execute arbitrary code with privileges of the current user.
Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may result in arbitrary code execution on the vulnerable system.
The weakness exists due to boundary error when parsing of the Excel spreadsheet file format. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted .xls file containing a malformed record object, trick the victim into opening it, trigger Featheader record memory corruption and execute arbitrary code with privileges of the current user.
Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may result in arbitrary code execution on the vulnerable system.
How to mitigate CVE-2009-3129
Install update from vendor's website.