Software Engineering Institute

Microsoft Publisher does not adequately validate strings within Publisher documents. Based on CT12-09-2006-2, the strings may be related to font information. The inadequate validation could allow a buffer overflow to occur. This vulnerability could be triggered when a user opens a specially crafted Publisher document.

By convincing a user to open a specially crafted Publisher document, a remote, unauthenticated attacker could execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running Publisher.

Apply Updates

Apply the appropriate updates (910729) referenced by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-054. Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 910729 describes known issues that may be caused by applying the updates. Specifically, updated versions of Publisher are no longer able to open Publisher 2.0 files.

Do not open untrusted documents

Do not open unfamiliar or unexpected Publisher or other Office documents, particularly those hosted on web sites or delivered as email attachments. Please see Cyber Security Tip ST04-010 for more information.

Do not rely on file name extension filtering

In most cases, Windows will call Publisher to open a document even if the document has an unknown file extension. For example, if document.qwer contains the correct file header information, Windows will open document.qwer with Publisher. Filtering for common extensions (e.g., .pub, .doc, .dot, .rtf) may not detect all Publisher documents.