Software Engineering Institute

Microsoft Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is a technology that allows applications to create and edit compound documents. Compound documents are those consisting of one format, that contain embeddings of (or links to) documents of another format.

Microsoft Windows fails to properly handle a malformed OLE object embedded in a Rich Text Format (RTF) document. An attacker may be able to exploit this vulnerability by convincing a user to open a specially crafted RTF document that includes an embedded malformed OLE object.

Note that on Windows, Wordpad.exe is the default handler for RTF documents.

A remote unauthenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code.

Apply an Update
Microsoft has addressed this vulnerability in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-011.

Do not open untrusted RTF documents

Do not open unfamiliar or unexpected RTF (.rtf) documents, particularly those hosted on web sites or delivered as email attachments. Please see Cyber Security Tip ST04-010.

Block Embedded Object in Wordpad

For instructions on how to Enable Embedded Object blocking in Wordpad, refer to the workarounds section of Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-011.

Uninstall WordPad

According to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-011 uninstalling WordPad will block the parsing of embedded objects within Rich Text Files.