Wordpad vulnerability, exploitable also in IE for Win9x
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 program. Georgi
Guninski, bears NO responsibility for content or misuse of this program
or any derivatives thereof.
Description:
There is a vulnerability in Wordpad which allows executing arbitrary
programs without warning the user after activating an embedded or linked
object. This may be also exploited in IE for Win9x.
Details:
Wordpad executes programs embeded in .doc or .rtf documents without
any warning if the object is activated by doubleclick.
This may be exploited in IE for Win9x using the view-source: protocol.
The view-source: protocol starts Notepad, but if the file is large, then
the user is asked to use Wordpad. So creating a large .rtf document and
creating a HTML view-source: link to it in a HTML page or HTML based email
message will prompt the user to use Wordpad and a program may be executed
if the user doubleclicks on an object in the opened document.
Demonstration which starts AUTOEXEC.BAT
Workaround: Do not activate objects in Wordpad documents
Copyright Georgi Guninski