Microsoft Word CVE-2019-1461 Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

Description

Microsoft Word is prone to a remote denial-of-service vulnerability. An attacker can exploit this issue to cause denial-of-service conditions.

Technologies Affected

• Microsoft Office 2010 (32-bit edition) SP2
• Microsoft Office 2010 (64-bit edition) SP2
• Microsoft Office 2019 for 32-bit editions
• Microsoft Office 2019 for 64-bit editions
• Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus for 32-bit Systems
• Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus for 64-bit Systems
• Microsoft Word 2010 Service Pack 2 (32-bit editions)
• Microsoft Word 2010 Service Pack 2 (64-bit editions)
• Microsoft Word 2013 RT Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Word 2013 Service Pack 1 (32-bit editions)
• Microsoft Word 2013 Service Pack 1 (64-bit editions)
• Microsoft Word 2016 (32-bit edition)
• Microsoft Word 2016 (64-bit edition)

Recommendations

Run all software as a nonprivileged user with minimal access rights.
To mitigate the impact of a successful exploit, run the affected application as a user with minimal access rights.

Deploy network intrusion detection systems to monitor network traffic for malicious activity.
Deploy NIDS to monitor network traffic for signs of suspicious or anomalous activity. This may help detect malicious actions that an attacker may take after successfully exploiting vulnerabilities in applications. Review all applicable logs regularly.

Do not accept or execute files from untrusted or unknown sources.
Never accept files from untrusted or unknown sources, because they may be malicious in nature. Avoid opening email attachments from unknown or questionable sources.

Implement multiple redundant layers of security.
Since this issue may be leveraged to execute code, we recommend memory-protection schemes, such as nonexecutable stack/heap configurations and randomly mapped memory segments. This tactic may complicate exploit attempts of memory-corruption vulnerabilities.

Updates are available. Please see the references or vendor advisory for more information.