Check Point Advisories

Microsoft Winhlp32 Compressed Phrase Integer Overflow (CVE-2004-1361)

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2004-211
Date Published:	21 Apr 2010
Severity:	High
Last Updated:	Wednesday 21 April, 2010
Source:
Industry Reference:	CVE-2004-1361
Protection Provided by:	Security Gateway R81, R80, R77, R75
Who is Vulnerable?
Vulnerability Description	Microsoft Windows provides online help solutions for windows-based applications through help files that are compiled in a proprietary file format. These files may be viewed with the application winhlp32.exe. There is a vulnerability in the way Microsoft Winhlp32 calculates a length value from values taken from a help (.hlp) file. Specially crafted values can lead to an integer overflow. This flaw results in a memory copy operation leading to a heap-based buffer overflow. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. In a simple exploit attempt, an instance of winhlp32 will attempt to process the specially crafted file with a .hlp extension. When the memory copy process is called from the vulnerable function, the application will terminate with a memory access violation error. In a more sophisticated attack case, possibly involving code execution, the process flow will be diverted. In such a case, the behavior of the target is dependent on the attacker's malicious intentions.

Protection Overview

This protection will detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability.

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

In the IPS tab, click Protections and find the Microsoft Winhlp32 Compressed Phrase Integer Overflow 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 Winhlp32 compressed phrase integer overflow