Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express Arbitrary Program Execution Vulnerability

vendor:

Outlook and Outlook Express

by:

SecurityFocus

7.5

CVSS

HIGH

Arbitrary Program Execution

CWE

Product Name: Outlook and Outlook Express

Affected Version From: N/A

Affected Version To: N/A

Patch Exists: NO

Related CWE: N/A

CPE: N/A

Metasploit: N/A

Other Scripts: N/A

Tags: N/A

CVSS Metrics: N/A

Nuclei References: N/A

Nuclei Metadata: N/A

Platforms Tested: Windows

2002

Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express Arbitrary Program Execution Vulnerability

Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express may execute arbitrary programs through objects embedded in HTML email messages. When an email message or newsgroup message is viewed using Outlook, a temporary object is created in the Internet Explorer cache. It is possible to have an object embedded in an HTML message reference an executable file using a CODEBASE reference and non-zero CLASSID value. It may also be possible for an attacker to place a file in a known temporary folder and have it executed through this method.

Mitigation:

Users should ensure that the security zone of the Internet Explorer cache is set to the Internet Zone by default. Additionally, users should be cautious when opening HTML email messages from untrusted sources.

Source

Exploit-DB raw data:

source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/6923/info

Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express may execute arbitrary programs through objects embedded in HTML email messages. When an email message or newsgroup message is viewed using Outlook, a temporary object is created in the Internet Explorer cache. The security zone of this cache should be set by Internet Explorer and is set to the Internet Zone by default.

It is possible to have an object embedded in an HTML message reference an executable file using a CODEBASE reference and non-zero CLASSID value. It may also be possible for an attacker to place a file in a known temporary folder and have it executed through this method.

An issue similar to this was reported for Internet Explorer (BID 3867). It appears that the issue was fixed for objects viewed in a web page through Internet Explorer, but not through HTML email viewed with Outlook or Outlook Express. 

<xml id=oExec> <security><exploit> <![CDATA[ <object id="oFile"
classid="clsid:11111111-1111-1111-1111"
code base="C:WINDOWSFTP.EXE"></object>]]></exploit></security></xml>
<SPAN dataFld=exploit dataFormatAs=html
dataSrc=#oExec></SPAN>