Effects
MS08-014 is not categorized as virus, worm, Trojan or backdoor. It is a group of critical vulnerabilities in several versions of Excel, which allows arbitrary code to be remotely executed in the vulnerable computer.
Affected versions are:
- Excel 2007.
- Excel 2003 Service Pack 2.
- Excel 2002 Service Pack 3.
- Excel 2000 Service Pack 3.
- Excel Viewer 2003.
- Office 2004 for Mac.
- Office 2008 for Mac.
- Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.
The addressed vulnerabilities are the following:
- Excel Data Validation Record vulnerability: this vulnerability occurs because Excel does not perform sufficient validation of data when loading Excel files into memory.
- Excel File Import vulnerability: this vulnerability happens because Excel does not perform sufficient validation of file data when importing a file into Excel.
- Excel Style Record vulnerability: it is due to a memory handling error in Excel when validating Style record information after opening a specially crafted Excel file.
- Excel Formula Parsing vulnerability: it is due to a memory calculation error when parsing formula information in a specially crafted Excel file.
- Excel Rich Text Validation vulnerability: this vulnerability occurs because Excel does not perform sufficient validation of rich text values when loading application data into memory.
- Excel Conditional Formatting vulnerability: it happens because Excel does not perform sufficient validation of conditional formatting values.
- Macro Validation vulnerability: it occurs because Excel does not properly validate macro information when loading specially crafted Excel files.
If exploited successfully, MS08-014 allows hackers to gain remote control of the affected computer with the same privileges as the logged on user. If this user had administrator rights, the hacker could take complete control of the system: create, modify or delete files, install programs, create new user accounts, etc.
This vulnerability is usually exploited by creating a specially crafted Excel file that can be sent via email or hosted in a web page, and enticing users into opening it.
If you have any of the vulnerable versions mentioned above, it is recommended to download and apply the security patch for this vulnerability. Click here to access the web page for downloading the patch.
Additionally, bear in mind that this security bulletin replaces several previous bulletins depending on the Office versions, called MS08-013, MS07-044 and MS07-036.