ISS prtoection Brief: Microsoft MDAC Remote Code Execution

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Internet Security Systems Security Brief
April 11, 2006

Microsoft MDAC Remote Code Execution

Summary:
Microsoft has issued an advisory for a vulnerability in Microsoft Data Access
Components. Specifically, the RDS.Dataspace ActiveX control provided with MDAC
allows attackers to create malicious web pages and create objects with the
security context of the logged in user rather than the Internet Explorer DOM.

Business Impact:

Compromise of the operating system can lead to exposure of
confidential information, loss of productivity, and further network
compromise. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could
be used to gain unauthorized access to one.s networks and machines.

Description:

It is possible to instantiate the RDS.Dataspace ActiveX control and not
have it associated with the Internet Explorer DOM. In doing so, it assumes
the security context of the currently logged on user and not the DOM. Under
this security context, functionality that is typically limited within
the DOM is now fully operational. Attackers may leverage this increased
privileged security context to execute commands on the target system.

Exploitation of this vulnerability requires the Internet Explorer
user to browse to a malicious page. Attackers may attempt to lure
users via phishing emails.

For the complete ISS X-Force Security Alert, please visit:
http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/alerts/id/219

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