We are re-releasing this bulletin to notify our customers of an
available patch for the "IE Script" vulnerability described in the
bulletin. We also recommend that all users consider installing the
patch for both issues described here if they are running any of the
affected products.

Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-049)

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Patches Available for "Office HTML Script" and "IE Script"
Vulnerabilities

Originally Posted: July 13, 2000
Re-released: August 09, 2000

Summary

On July 13, 2000, Microsoft released the original version of this
bulletin. It provided a patch to eliminate a security vulnerability
in Microsoft(r) Office 2000 and PowerPoint 97, and a workaround to
protect against a vulnerability in Internet Explorer. On August 09,
2000, the bulletin was re-released to announce the availability of a
patch for the vulnerability in Internet Explorer.

The effect of both vulnerabilities are the same – they could allow a
malicious web site operator to cause code of his choice to run on the
computer of a visiting user.

Frequently asked questions regarding this vulnerability and the patch
can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq00-049.asp

Issue

Two vulnerabilities have recently been discovered, one affecting
Microsoft Office 2000 and PowerPoint 97, and the other affecting
Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2 and higher. Although they
involve different products, the effect, risk and exploit scenario are
exactly the same. As a result, we have chosen to discuss them in the
same bulletin. The vulnerabilities are:

The "Office Script" vulnerability. This vulnerability could allow
script hosted on a malicious user's web site to save an Excel 2000,
Powerpoint 2000, or Powerpoint 97 file to the computer of a visiting
user. Depending on where and how the file were saved to the user's
computer, it could be made to launch automatically. If this were
done, macro or VBA code could be made to run.

The "IE Script" vulnerability. This vulnerability could allow script
hosted on a malicious user's web site to reference a Microsoft Access
file on the site. In turn, the Access file, when opened, could cause
macro or VBA code to run.

Affected Software Versions

The Office HTML Script vulnerability affects the following Office
products when used in conjunction with Internet Explorer 4.x or 5.x:

• Microsoft Excel 2000
• Microsoft Powerpoint 2000
• Microsoft PowerPoint 97

The IE Script vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 4.01 SP2 and
higher, when Microsoft Access 97 or Access 2000 is present on the
user machine.

Patch Availability

Office HTML Script vulnerability:

• Microsoft Excel 2000 and PowerPoint 2000:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloaddetails/Addinsec.htm

• Microsoft PowerPoint 97:
• http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloaddetails/PPt97sec.htm

IE Script vulnerability:

• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/critical/patch11.htm

Note: The patch for the IE Script vulnerability also eliminates a
number of other security vulnerabilities. Please see Microsoft
Security Bulletin MS00-055 for more information.

Note: Additional security patches are available at the Microsoft
Download Center

More Information

Please see the following references for more information related to
this issue.

• Frequently Asked Questions: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-049,
  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq00-049.asp
• Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles:
  Q268365 (Excel 2000), Q268457 (PowerPoint 2000), and Q268477
  (PowerPoint 97) discusses "The Office HTML Script" vulnerability.
• The Microsoft Office Update Site,
  http://officeupdate.microsoft.com
• Knowledge Base (KB) article Q269368 explaining the "IE Script"
  Vulnerability in more detail will be available soon.
• Microsoft TechNet Security web site,
  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/default.asp

Obtaining Support on this Issue

This is a fully supported patch. Information on contacting Microsoft
Product Support Services is available at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/contact/default.asp.

Revisions

July 13, 2000: Bulletin Created.
August 09, 2000: Bulletin updated to advise availability of a patch
for the "IE Script" vulnerability.

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Last Updated August 09, 2000

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