----- Forwarded message from Georgi Guninski ----- Approved-By: aleph1@SECURITYFOCUS.COM Delivered-To: bugtraq@lists.securityfocus.com Delivered-To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS.COM X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 15:19:28 +0300 Reply-To: Georgi Guninski From: Georgi Guninski Subject: IE 5.5/Outlook security vulnerability - com.ms.activeX.ActiveXComponent allows executing arbitrary programs To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS.COM Georgi Guninski security advisory #23, 2000 IE 5.5/Outlook security vulnerability - com.ms.activeX.ActiveXComponent allows executing arbitrary programs Systems affected: IE 5.5/Outlook/Outlook Express - probably other versions, have not tested Risk: High Date: 5 October 2000 Legal Notice: This Advisory is Copyright (c) 2000 Georgi Guninski. You may distribute it unmodified. You may not modify it and distribute it or distribute parts of it without the author's written permission. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this advisory and program are my own and not of any company. The usual standard disclaimer applies, especially the fact that Georgi Guninski is not liable for any damages caused by direct or indirect use of the information or functionality provided by this advisory or program. Georgi Guninski, bears no responsibility for content or misuse of this advisory or program or any derivatives thereof. Description: Internet Explorer 5.5/Outlook allow executing arbitray programs after viewing web page or email message. This may lead to taking full control over user's computer. Details: The problem is the com.ms.activeX.ActiveXComponent java object which may be instantiated from tag (it throws security exception in java console, but returns object, strange). The com.ms.activeX.ActiveXComponent java object allows creating and scripting arbitrary ActiveX objects, including those not marked safe for scripting. Examine the code below for more information. The code is: ---------javaea.html------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ Regarding this issue and Outlook with "security update" (probably this should be another advisory). It is a bit more difficult to exploit this from Outlook because of the "Outlook security update" which stops "most scripting". It is common misbelief that the "Outlook security update" stops all scripting, but this is not true. It is possible to trigger the execution of Active Script from email message with the help of Java. Send a email message containing -----------javascript.html------------- --------------------------------------- ----------outlookjs.java--------------- import java.applet.Applet; import netscape.javascript.*; class outlookjs extends Applet { public JSObject j; public void init() { try { j=(JSObject) JSObject.getWindow(this); j.eval(getParameter("command")); } catch (Exception e) {System.out.println(e);}; } } --------------------------------------- Workaround: Disable Active Scripting or Java or Scripting of Java applets - better disable all active content in IE. Demonstration is available at: http://www.guninski.com/javaea1.html http://www.guninski.com/javaea2.html Regards, Georgi Guninski http://www.guninski.com ----- End forwarded message -----