Microsoft Windows OLE Property CVE-2011-3400 Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Description

Microsoft Windows is prone to a remote code-execution vulnerability. Attackers can exploit this issue by enticing an unsuspecting user to open a specially crafted file. Successful exploits can allow attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application. Failed exploit attempts may result in a denial-of-service condition.

Technologies Affected

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition Itanium SP1 Beta 1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition SP2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Itanium Sp2 Itanium
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition SP2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Itanium SP2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Sp2 Compute Cluster
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Sp2 Datacenter
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Sp2 Enterprise
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Sp2 Storage
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Sp2 X64
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Web Edition SP2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 SP2
• Microsoft Windows XP Embedded SP3
• Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition SP3
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2
• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP3

Recommendations

Run all software as a nonprivileged user with minimal access rights.
To reduce the impact of latent vulnerabilities, always run nonadministrative software as an unprivileged 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.
To reduce the likelihood of successful exploits, never handle files that originate from unfamiliar or untrusted sources.

Do not follow links provided by unknown or untrusted sources.
Web users should be cautious about following links to sites that are provided by unfamiliar or suspicious sources. Filtering HTML from emails may help remove a possible vector for transmitting malicious links to users.

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 exploits of memory-corruption vulnerabilities.

Vendor updates are available. Please see the references for details.