Patch Available for "The Office HTML Script" Vulnerability and a Workaround for "The IE Script" Vulnerability

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              AUSCERT External Security Bulletin Redistribution
                             
           ESB-2000.174 -- Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-049)
      Patch Available for "The Office HTML Script" Vulnerability and a
                Workaround for "The IE Script" Vulnerability
                                17 July 2000

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	AusCERT Security Bulletin Summary
	---------------------------------

Product:		Excel 2000
			PowerPoint 97, 2000
			Internet Explorer 4.x, 5.x

Vendor:			Microsoft
Operating System:	N/A
Platform:		N/A

Impact:			Create Arbitrary files
Access Required:	Remote

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Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-049)
- - --------------------------------------

Patch Available for "The Office HTML Script" Vulnerability and a
Workaround for "The IE Script" Vulnerability

Originally Posted: July 13, 2000

Summary
=======
Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security
vulnerability in Microsoft(r) Office 2000 (Excel and PowerPoint) and
in PowerPoint 97. Microsoft has also documented a workaround that
prevents the use of Microsoft Access to exploit a vulnerability in
Internet Explorer. A patch for the latter vulnerability will be
available soon and we will have an update to this bulletin.

Frequently asked questions regarding this vulnerability and the patch
can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq00-049.asp

Issue
======
Two vulnerabilities have recently been discovered, one affecting
Microsoft Office 2000, and PowerPoint 97, and the other Internet
Explorer 4.01 SP2 and higher. We will refer to these issues as the
"Office script" and "IE script" vulnerabilities. The names refer to
the product where the vulnerability is present, but not necessarily
how the vulnerability is exploited.

The Office HTML Script vulnerability, allows malicious script code on
a web page to reference an Excel 2000 or PowerPoint file in such a
way as to cause a remotely hosted file to be saved to a visiting
user's hard drive.

This vulnerability can only be exploited by a reference to an Excel
2000 or PowerPoint file; it cannot be exploited using Excel 97,
Microsoft Word or a Microsoft Access file.

The IE Script vulnerability, can allow malicious script code on a web
page to reference a remotely hosted Microsoft Access file. The
Microsoft Access file can in turn causes a VBA macro code in the file
to be executed.

Affected Software Versions
==========================
Microsoft Excel 2000
Microsoft PowerPoint 97 and 2000
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, 5.01 SP1, 5.01, 4.01 SP2

Patch Availability
==================
Microsoft Excel 2000 and PowerPoint 2000:
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloaddetails/Addinsec.htm
Microsoft PowerPoint 97:
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloaddetails/PPt97sec.htm

Note Additional security patches are available at the Microsoft
Download Center

More Information
================
Please see the following references for more information related to
this issue.
 - Frequently Asked Questions: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-049,
   http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq00-049.asp
 - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles:
   Q268365 (Excel 2000), Q268457 (PowerPoint 2000), Q268477
   (PowerPoint 97) discusses "The Office HTML Script" vulnerability.
 - The Microsoft Office Update Site,
   http://officeupdate.microsoft.com
 - Microsoft TechNet Security web site,
   http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/default.asp

Obtaining Support on this Issue
===============================
This is a fully supported patch. Information on contacting Microsoft
Product Support Services is available at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/contact/default.asp .

Revisions
=========
July 13, 2000: Bulletin Created.

- - -------------------------------------------------------------------

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED
"AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT
SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF
MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION
OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO
THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.

Last Updated July 13, 2000
(c) 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of use.

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