SQL Server Management Studio Information Disclosure Vulnerability

An information disclosure vulnerability exists in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) when parsing a malicious XEL file containing a reference to an external entity. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could read arbitrary files via an XML external entity declaration.

To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker must entice a user on an affected SSMS server to open a specially crafted XEL file. In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending the specially crafted file to the user and then convincing the user to open the file. In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website (or leverage a compromised website that accepts or hosts user-provided content) that contains a specially crafted file designed to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force a user to visit the website. Instead, an attacker would have to convince a user to click a link and open the specially crafted file.

The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how SQL Server Management Studio parses XML input.