Vulnerabilities > CVE-2015-2521 - Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer vulnerability in Microsoft Excel, Excel Viewer and Office Compatibility Pack
Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
MEDIUM Privileges required
NONE Confidentiality impact
COMPLETE Integrity impact
COMPLETE Availability impact
COMPLETE Summary
Microsoft Excel 2007 SP3, Excel 2010 SP2, Office Compatibility Pack SP3, and Excel Viewer allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Office document, aka "Microsoft Office Memory Corruption Vulnerability."
Vulnerable Configurations
| Part | Description | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Application | 5 |
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the attacker finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
- Overflow Buffers Buffer Overflow attacks target improper or missing bounds checking on buffer operations, typically triggered by input injected by an attacker. As a consequence, an attacker is able to write past the boundaries of allocated buffer regions in memory, causing a program crash or potentially redirection of execution as per the attackers' choice.
- Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow This type of attack exploits a buffer overflow vulnerability in targeted client software through injection of malicious content from a custom-built hostile service.
- Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow In this attack, the idea is to cause an active filter to fail by causing an oversized transaction. An attacker may try to feed overly long input strings to the program in an attempt to overwhelm the filter (by causing a buffer overflow) and hoping that the filter does not fail securely (i.e. the user input is let into the system unfiltered).
- MIME Conversion An attacker exploits a weakness in the MIME conversion routine to cause a buffer overflow and gain control over the mail server machine. The MIME system is designed to allow various different information formats to be interpreted and sent via e-mail. Attack points exist when data are converted to MIME compatible format and back.
Exploit-Db
| description | Microsoft Office 2007 - OLESSDirectyEntry.CreateTime Type Confusion. CVE-2015-2521. Dos exploit for windows platform |
| file | exploits/windows/dos/38216.txt |
| id | EDB-ID:38216 |
| last seen | 2016-02-04 |
| modified | 2015-09-16 |
| platform | windows |
| port | |
| published | 2015-09-16 |
| reporter | Google Security Research |
| source | https://www.exploit-db.com/download/38216/ |
| title | Microsoft Office 2007 - OLESSDirectyEntry.CreateTime Type Confusion |
| type | dos |
Msbulletin
| bulletin_id | MS15-099 |
| bulletin_url | |
| date | 2015-09-08T00:00:00 |
| impact | Remote Code Execution |
| knowledgebase_id | 3089664 |
| knowledgebase_url | |
| severity | Important |
| title | Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution |
Nessus
| NASL family | Windows : Microsoft Bulletins |
| NASL id | SMB_NT_MS15-099.NASL |
| description | The remote Windows host has a version of Microsoft Office, Excel, Excel Viewer, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, Microsoft Office Web Apps, and/or Microsoft SharePoint Foundation installed that is affected by one or more of the following vulnerabilities : - Multiple remote code execution vulnerabilities exist due to improper handling of objects in memory. A remote attacker can exploit these vulnerabilities by convincing a user to open a specially crafted file in Microsoft Office, resulting in execution of arbitrary code in the context of the current user. (CVE-2015-2520, CVE-2015-2521, CVE-2015-2523) - A cross-site scripting vulnerability exists in SharePoint due to improper sanitization of user-supplied web requests. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability, via a specially crafted web request, to execute arbitrary script code in the context of the current user. (CVE-2015-2522) - A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Office due to improper handling of malformed graphics images. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by convincing a user to open a file or visit a website containing a specially crafted EPS image binary, resulting in execution of arbitrary code in the context of the current user. (CVE-2015-2545) |
| last seen | 2020-06-01 |
| modified | 2020-06-02 |
| plugin id | 85879 |
| published | 2015-09-09 |
| reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2015-2018 Tenable Network Security, Inc. |
| source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/85879 |
| title | MS15-099: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (3089664) |