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Message-ID: <FB24803D1DF2A34FA59FC157B77C970501A74ACD@IDSERV04.idef.com> From: idlabs-advisories at idefense.com (idlabs-advisories@...fense.com) Subject: iDEFENSE Security Advisory 03.09.04: Microsoft Outlook "mailto:" Parameter Passing Vulnerability - Update On March 10, 2004, Microsoft upgraded the severity of iDEFENSE Security Advisory 03.09.04 from "Important" to "Critical". This was done as alternate attack vectors were uncovered that bypassed the originally proposed workarounds. iDEFENSE is re-releasing the advisory to reflect this newly discovered information. Details regarding the following information have been added to the Analysis section of the advisory: - It is possible for an attacker to force Outlook 2002 to start in the "Outlook Today" view. As a result, the originally proposed workaround of setting the default view to something other than "Outlook Today" is not effective. Pedram Amini Assistant Director, iDEFENSE Labs ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Microsoft Outlook "mailto:" Parameter Passing Vulnerability iDEFENSE Security Advisory 03.09.04 www.idefense.com/application/poi/display?id=79&type=vulnerabilities March 09, 2004 I. BACKGROUND Microsoft Outlook provides an integrated solution for managing and organizing e-mail messages, schedules, tasks, notes, contacts, and other information. More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/outlook/. II. DESCRIPTION Insufficient filtering of parameters passed to Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail client via the "mailto:" URI (RFC 2368) allows for remote script execution within the "Local Machine" zone. When Outlook is installed, it is enabled as the default e-mail handler. A "mailto:" URI will spawn Outlook with the following command line switches: OUTLOOK.EXE -c IPM.Note /m "... The problem manifests when the string '"' is interspersed within the URI, thereby allowing an attacker to manipulate the command line switches that Outlook is instantiated with. The following example URI: ... mailto:aa" /profile "xx" ... causes Internet Explorer to start Outlook as such: OUTLOOK.EXE -c IPM.Note /m "aa" /profile "xx" The provided URI can be of the form 'javascript:...', allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary script code. In some implementations, this script code executes under the context of the "Local Machine Zone". An attacker does not need to socially engineer a target user into clicking on a malicious link, as the process can be started automatically by embedding the "mailto:" URI within an HTML IMG tag. III. ANALYSIS Successful exploitation allows an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code under the context of the "Local Machine" zone. Script code executing with such privileges can be crafted to retrieve and execute arbitrary third-party code, thereby leading to further compromise. Microsoft had originally stated that only users who had set "Outlook Today" as their default Outlook folder home page were affected. Further analysis has revealed that users are not protected by changing their default view. Additional manipulation allows an attacker to force Outlook to start within the "Outlook Today" view with a specified URI. This can be accomplished by first starting Outlook while specifying "Outlook Today" as the starting view and then passing in a URI via the '/recycle' command line switch. Another potential exploit vector may involve the usage of the command line switch '/select outlook:outlook%20today'. iDEFENSE has proof of concept exploit code demonstrating the impact of this vulnerability. IV. DETECTION iDEFENSE has confirmed the existence of this vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook 2002. V. WORKAROUND iDEFENSE is currently unaware of any valid workarounds. VI. VENDOR RESPONSE/FIX Microsoft has released the following patches to address this issue: Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=85AF7BFD-6F69-4 289-8BD1-EB966BCDFB5E&displaylang=en VII. CVE INFORMATION The Mitre Corp.'s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Project has assigned CAN-2004-0121 to this issue. VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE October 10, 2003 Vulnerability acquired by iDEFENSE November 12, 2003 Initial vendor notification November 12, 2003 Initial vendor response November 21, 2003 iDEFENSE clients notified March 09, 2004 Coordinated public disclosure March 11, 2004 Updated advisory IX. CREDIT Jouko Pynn?nen (http://iki.fi/jouko) is credited with this discovery.
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