Check Point Advisories

Microsoft Excel Conditional Formatting Handling Code Execution (MS08-014; CVE-2008-0117)

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2008-041
Date Published:	11 Mar 2008
Severity:	Critical
Last Updated:	Tuesday 29 November, 2011
Source:
Industry Reference:	CVE-2008-0117
Protection Provided by:	Security Gateway R81, R80, R77, R75, R71, R70, R65
Who is Vulnerable?
Vulnerability Description	Microsoft Excel is a popular spreadsheet application. A memory corruption vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Office. A remote attacker could exploit this issue via a malformed Excel file. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may allow execution of arbitrary code on a target system. The vulnerability is due to an error in Microsoft Excel that fails to properly handle data validation of conditional format values when loading malformed Excel files. An attacker can exploit this flaw to take complete control over a vulnerable system via a specially crafted Excel file.

Protection Overview

This protection will detect and block the transferring of malformed Excel files over HTTP.

In order for the protection to be activated, update your Security Gateway product to the latest IPS update. For information on how to update IPS, go to SBP-2006-05, click on Protection tab and select the version of your choice.

Security Gateway R80 / R77 / R75 / R71 / R70 / R65

In the IPS tab, click Protections and find the Microsoft Excel Conditional Formatting Handling Code Execution (MS08-014) protection using the Search tool and Edit the protection's settings.
Install policy on all Security Gateways.

This protection's log will contain the following information:

Attack Name: Content Protection Violation.
Attack Information: Microsoft Excel conditional formatting handling code execution (MS08-014)