E-mail Editor Flaw Could Lead to Script Execution New

A security vulnerability is created in Microsoft Outlook when using Word as the e-mail editor. The flaw may allow an attacker to run the code of their choice when a user replies to or forwards a malicious message.

Issue

Outlook 2000 and 2002 provide the option to use Microsoft Word as the e-mail editor when creating and editing e-mail in either Rich-Text or HTML format. A security vulnerability exists when Outlook is configured this way and the user forwards or replies to a mail from an attacker.

The vulnerability results from a difference in the security settings that are applied when displaying a mail versus editing one. When Outlook displays an HTML e-mail, it applies Internet Explorer security zone settings that disallow scripts from being run. However, if the user replies to or forwards a mail message and has selected Word as the e-mail editor, Outlook opens the mail and puts the Word editor into a mode for creating e-mail messages. Scripts are not blocked in this mode.

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially malformed HTML e-mail containing a script to an Outlook user who has Word enabled as the e-mail editor. If the user replied to or forwarded the e-mail, the script would then run, and be capable of taking any action the user could take.

Affected Products

• Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002

Download

Software patches are available from the following locations:

• Microsoft Word 2002
• Microsoft Word 2000

Further Details

Source: Microsoft Corporation

Reference: Microsoft Corporation

Updated: April 25, 2002

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