Microsoft security alert.

Advisory overview

Qualys Vulnerability R&D Lab has released new vulnerability checks in the Enterprise TruRisk Platform to protect organizations against 1 vulnerability that were fixed in 2 bulletins announced today by Microsoft. Customers can immediately audit their networks for these and other new vulnerabilities by accessing their Qualys subscription. Visit Qualys Security Blog to prioritize remediation.

Non-Qualys customers can audit their network for these and other vulnerabilities by signing up for a Qualys Free Trial, or by trying Qualys Community Edition.

Vulnerability details

Microsoft has released 2 security bulletins to fix newly discovered flaws in their software. Qualys has released the following checks for these new vulnerabilities:

• Microsoft Windows Graphics Rendering Engine WMF Format Code Execution (MS06-001)

  Severity

  Urgent 5

  Qualys ID

  90289

  Vendor Reference

  MS06-001

  CVE Reference

  CVE-2005-4560

  CVSS Scores

  Base 7.5 / Temporal 6.2

  Description

  Microsoft Windows supports the Windows Metafile (WMF) image format. WMF is a 16-bit image format that contains vector and bitmap information. Microsoft Windows WMF graphics rendering engine is affected by a remote code execution vulnerability. The cause of this issue is currently unknown.

  The problem presents itself when a user views a malicious WMF formatted file, triggering the vulnerability when the engine attempts to parse the file. Any code execution that occurs will be with SYSTEM privileges due to the nature of the affected engine.

  It should be noted that viewing a malicious file in Windows Explorer may automatically trigger this issue. Microsoft Windows XP is considered to be vulnerable at the moment. It is likely that other Windows operating systems are affected as well.

  Windows XP Embedded Systems:- For additional information regarding security updates for embedded systems, refer to the following MSDN blog(s):

  February Security Updates are Available (KB912919)
  

  Consequence

  This issue could be exploited remotely through any means that would allow an attacker to transmit the malicious image to a user, including through a malicious Web site and HTML email or embedding it in an Office document. Attacks could also occur by enticing an unsuspecting user to visit a remote file share hosting the file. User interaction is required in remote attack scenarios.

  A local attacker could also exploit this issue to gain elevated privileges without any user interaction. It is noted that any application that is used to view the affected image type may present an attack vector.

  Solution

  Please refer Microsoft Bulletin MS06-001 for more information and instructions on installing the patch.

  Microsoft has rated this update as Critical.

  Patches:
  The following are links for downloading patches to fix these vulnerabilities:
  MS06-001 Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
  MS06-001 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
  MS06-001 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for Itanium based Systems and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP1 for Itanium based Systems
  MS06-001 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition
  MS06-001 Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
  MS06-001 Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2

• Unofficial Patch to Microsoft Windows WMF Flaw (912840) Installed

  Severity

  Medium 2

  Qualys ID

  90290

  Vendor Reference

  KB912840, MS06-001

  CVE Reference

  CVE-2005-4560

  CVSS Scores

  Base 7.5 / Temporal 6.2

  Description

  Unofficial patch for the Microsoft Windows vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine (Advisory 912840) provided by Ilfak Guilfanov is installed on the target system.

  Consequence

  N/A

  Solution

  Remove the unofficial patch and install the official patch from Microsoft. Please refer Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-001 for more information.

Access for Qualys Customers

Platforms and Platform Identification

Technical Support

For more information, customers may contact Qualys Technical Support.

About Qualys

The Enterprise TruRisk Platform and its integrated suite of security and compliance applications provides organizations of all sizes with a global view of their security and compliance solutions, while drastically reducing their total cost of ownership. Qualys solutions include: continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, policy compliance, PCI compliance, security assessment questionnaire, web application scanning, web application firewall, malware detection and SECURE Seal for security testing of web sites.