Software Engineering Institute

Microsoft Excel fails to properly handle Palette records embedded in Excel documents. When a file containing a malformed Palette record is opened in Excel, system memory can be corrupted in a way that may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

More information is available in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-002.

By convincing a user to open a specially crafted Excel document, an attacker could execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running Excel. If the user is logged in with administrative privileges, the attacker could take complete control of a vulnerable system.

Apply an update from Microsoft
Microsoft addresses this vulnerability with the updates listed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-002.

Note that Microsoft has re-released the updates in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-002 for Excel 2000. See the Microsoft Security Response Center blog for more information.

Do not open untrusted Excel documents

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