Check Point Advisories

Microsoft Excel Malformed SELECTION Record Code Execution (MS06-037; CVE-2006-1301)

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2006-265
Date Published:	26 May 2010
Severity:	High
Last Updated:	Sunday 27 April, 2014
Source:
Industry Reference:	CVE-2006-1301
Protection Provided by:	Security Gateway R81, R80, R77, R75
Who is Vulnerable?
Vulnerability Description	Microsoft Excel is a popular spreadsheet application that is usually released as part of the Microsoft Office suite. The application can create complex spreadsheets with multiple workbooks, formulae, and various data sources. The proprietary file format used for storing Microsoft Excel documents is known as the Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF), with different versions of the application supporting different versions of the format. The common extension used for Microsoft Excel documents is .xls, though, other extensions like .xlw are sometimes used for older version of the Excel file format. There exists a memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel. The flaw is caused by an insufficient checks while parsing Selection records in the Excel files. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by enticing the target user to open a crafted excel file, causing arbitrary code to be injected and executed in the security context of the currently logged in user. In case of an attack where code injection is not successful, all instances of the vulnerable Microsoft Excel application will terminate or the application will stop responding. This can potentially lead to a loss of data. In case of an attack where code injection and execution is successful, the behavior of the target is entirely dependent on the intended function of the injected code. The code in such a case would execute within the security context of the current user.

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 Excel Malformed SELECTION Record Code Execution (MS06-037) 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 malformed SELECTION record code execution (MS06-037)