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Microsoft Tracking ActiveX Issue
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-09-18
 Security News RSS Feed
A zero-day vulnerability in the Microsoft DirectAnimation Path ActiveX control could permit remote code execution via Internet Explorer.
The security advisory posted by Microsoft referred to public reports of an issue in Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, on Windows XP Service Pack 1, and on Windows XP Service Pack 2. Customers who are running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 in their default configurations, with the Enhanced Security Configuration turned on, are not affected.
The advisory also noted Microsoft is aware of the existence of proof of concept code, but no exploits have been reported. "This vulnerability may allow an attacker to execute code on a user's machine by convincing them to visit a malicious website using Internet Explorer," Christopher Budd wrote at the Microsoft Security Resource Center blog.
Microsoft has not decided whether the patch for this vulnerability will be part of its monthly patch release, or made available out-of-cycle. Considering how Microsoft has not released patches out-of-cycle for more serious flaws, this one does not look like a candidate for that treatment either at this time.
One mitigating factor could prevent this from becoming a more serious issue. The attacker would have to entice a user to click on a link to a malicious site. Unless the user does this, the exploit code can't affect the browser.
The Secunia advisory site rated this exploit as Extremely Critical, its highest severity rating. They described some details of the vulnerability:
The vulnerability is caused due to a memory corruption error in the Microsoft Multimedia Controls ActiveX control (daxctle.ocx) in the "CPathCtl::KeyFrame()" function. This can be exploited by e.g. tricking a user into viewing a malicious HTML document passing specially crafted arguments to the ActiveX control's "KeyFrame()" method.
Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code.
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Tag: Microsoft
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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