Microsoft security alert.

Advisory overview

Qualys Vulnerability R&D Lab has released new vulnerability checks in the Enterprise TruRisk Platform to protect organizations against 6 vulnerabilities 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 Internet Explorer Cumulative Security Update (MS09-034)

  Severity

  Urgent 5

  Qualys ID

  90513

  Vendor Reference

  MS09-034

  CVE Reference

  CVE-2009-1917, CVE-2009-1918, CVE-2009-1919

  CVSS Scores

  Base 10 / Temporal 7.4

  Description

  Microsoft Internet Explorer is a Web browser for Microsoft Windows.

  Internet Explorer is prone to the following memory corruption vulnerabilities:

  - When Internet Explorer attempts to access an object that has been deleted, memory may be corrupted in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code in the context of the logged-on user. (CVE-2009-1917)

  - A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer handles table operations in specific situations. This can be exploited to corrupt memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code in the context of the logged-on user. (CVE-2009-1918)

  - A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way Internet Explorer accesses an object that has been deleted. (CVE-2009-1919)

  Microsoft has released a security update that addresses these vulnerabilities by modifying the way that Internet Explorer handles objects in memory and table operations.

  Affected Software:
  Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4
  Internet Explorer 6
  Internet Explorer 7
  Internet Explorer 8

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

  Out of Band August 2009 Security Updates For Runtimes Are Now Available on the ECE (KB972260)
  Aug 09 Security Updates for Standard 09 and XPe are Now Available (KB972260)
  

  Consequence

  Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can result in execution or arbitrary code.

  Solution

  Patch:
  Following are links for downloading patches to fix the vulnerabilities:

  Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4)

  Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1)

  Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6)

  Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6)

  Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6)

  Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition Service Pack 2 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6)

  Windows Server 2003 with SP2 for Itanium-based Systems (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6)

  Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Windows Internet Explorer 7)

  Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2 (Windows Internet Explorer 7)

  Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (Windows Internet Explorer 7)

  Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition Service Pack 2 (Windows Internet Explorer 7)

  Windows Server 2003 with SP2 for Itanium-based Systems (Windows Internet Explorer 7)

  Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (Windows Internet Explorer 7)

  Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems and Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 (Windows Internet Explorer 7)

  For a complete list of patch download links, please refer to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-034.

  Workarounds:
  - Set Internet and Local intranet security zone settings to "High" to prompt before running ActiveX Controls and Active Scripting
  - Configure Internet Explorer to prompt before running Active Scripting or to disable Active Scripting in the Internet and Local intranet security zone

  Impact of the workarounds:
  On visiting Web sites on the Internet or Intranet that use ActiveX or Active Scripting to provide additional functionality, you will be prompted frequently when you enable this workaround.

• Microsoft Visual Studio Active Template Library Remote Code Execution (MS09-035)

  Severity

  Urgent 5

  Qualys ID

  90514

  Vendor Reference

  MS09-035

  CVE Reference

  CVE-2009-0901, CVE-2009-2493, CVE-2009-2495

  CVSS Scores

  Base 9.3 / Temporal 7.3

  Description

  Microsoft Visual Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It can be used to develop console and graphical user interface applications.

  Certain applications of the Visual Studio product line are prone the following security vulnerabilities:

  - A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) due to an issue in the ATL headers that could allow an attacker to force VariantClear to be called on a VARIANT that has not been correctly initialized. (CVE-2009-0901)

  - A vulnerability exists due to issues in the ATL headers that handle instantiation of an object from data streams. For components and controls built using ATL, unsafe usage of OleLoadFromStream could allow the instantiation of arbitrary objects which can bypass certain related security policies. (CVE-2009-2493)

  - An information disclosure vulnerability exists in the Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) that could allow a string to be read without a terminating NULL character. An attacker could manipulate this string to read extra data beyond the end of the string and thus disclose information in memory. (CVE-2009-2495)

  Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 and Visual C++ 2005 and 2008 are affected.

  Consequence

  Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can result in disclosure of sensitive information, arbitrary execution of code, or allow an attacker to bypass security restrictions.

  Solution

  Patch:
  Following are links for downloading patches to fix the vulnerabilities:

  Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Service Pack 1

  Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1

  Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 64-bit Hosted Visual C++ Tools

  Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

  Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1

  Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package

  Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package

  Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package

  Refer to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035 for further details.

  Workaround:
  - Set Internet and Local intranet security zone settings to "High" to prompt before running ActiveX Controls and Active Scripting
  - Configure Internet Explorer to prompt before running Active Scripting or to disable Active Scripting in the Internet and Local intranet security zone

  Impact of the workarounds:
  On visiting Web sites on the Internet or Intranet that use ActiveX or Active Scripting to provide additional functionality, you will be prompted frequently when you enable this workaround. For additional details on the workarounds, please refer to Microsoft Security Advisory (973882).

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.