Overview
A vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files on a vulnerable system.
Description
A vulnerability in the showHelp Method contained within IE may allow a remote attacker to read arbitrary files. For further details, please see the following documents: Although a patch is available, it is important to note that it *disables* the showHelp method, but does not "fix" it. In order to restore the functionality showHelp provides, you must install the latest version of HTML Help. Additionally, the latest version of HTML Help contains some limitations. Quoting from Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-004:
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Impact
A remote attacker may be able to read arbitrary files on a vulnerable system, which may allow them to gain access to sensitive information such as user credentials. In the worst case, a remote attacker may be able to execute programs with certain parameters leading to a total system compromise if IE is running as administrator. |
Solution
Apply a patch. More information about patches can be found in MS03-004. |
Vendor Information
CVSS Metrics
| Group | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Base | ||
| Temporal | ||
| Environmental |
References
Acknowledgements
This vulnerability was discovered by Andreas Sandblad. The CERT/CC thanks Andreas for helping us to understand this vulnerability.
This document was written by Ian A Finlay.
Other Information
| CVE IDs: | CVE-2003-1328 |
| Severity Metric: | 28.69 |
| Date Public: | 2003-02-05 |
| Date First Published: | 2003-02-06 |
| Date Last Updated: | 2003-02-13 19:31 UTC |
| Document Revision: | 21 |