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Strange Excel Advisory Appears Online
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-01-09
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An advisory about Microsoft Excel rated Highly Critical by Secunia appeared this morning, but the source for the advisory seems to be lacking supporting information.
 | | Strange Excel Advisory Appears Online |  |
When something related to Microsoft rolls out of Secunia carrying a 4/5 rating on the criticality scale, it gets people's attention, especially when the issue has been cited as affecting Excel, the spreadsheet program that is among the most heavily used computer applications in the world.
Such an advisory emerged today, with Secunia citing Jie Ma at Fortinet on the problem:
Jie Ma has reported a vulnerability in Microsoft Excel, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.
The vulnerability is caused due to an unspecified error when opening XLS files using Internet Explorer. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code via a specially crafted XLS file with a certain unspecified opcode.
On the surface it sounds like the typical problem that has been cropping up with Microsoft programs like Excel and Word. Doing a cursory check of the advisory Secunia posted turned up some oddities, though.
Fortinet has its advisory dated January 1, 2006. It references Microsoft Security Bulletin 927198, which does not exist. Also, recent Microsoft bulletins have been starting with 929, so one beginning with 927 would have to be an older issue.
Fortinet also cited a CVE reference number, CVE-2006-3432, which would indicate it cropped up last year. That reference does not seem to exist aside from being noted on a couple of mailing lists as a reserved reference.
Secunia and Fortinet did not reply to a request for more information by press time. The usual caveat of not opening untrusted documents applies regardless of the existence of a new threat to Excel.
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Tag: Excel
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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