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Microsoft Windows XMLHTTP component allows remote access to local data sources

Vulnerability Note VU#328163

Original Release Date: 2002-10-01 | Last Revised: 2002-10-02

Overview

The Microsoft XMLHTTP ActiveX control allows unauthorized reading of any known file on a system. A victim must be enticed to visit a malicious site in order to be attacked.

Description

Description (from MS02-008):

Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) includes the XMLHTTP ActiveX
control, which allows web pages rendering in the browser to send or
receive XML data via HTTP operations such as POST, GET, and PUT.
The control provides security measures designed to restrict web
pages so they can only use the control to request data from remote
data sources.

A flaw exists in how the XMLHTTP control applies IE security zone
settings to a redirected data stream returned in response to a
request for data from a web site. A vulnerability results because
an attacker could seek to exploit this flaw and specify a data
source that is on the user's local system. The attacker could
then use this to return information from the local system to the
attacker's web site.

Preconditions (from MS02-008):

 - The vulnerability can only be exploited via a web site.
  It would not be possible to exploit this vulnerability
  via HTML mail.

 - The attacker would need to know the full path and file name
  of a file in order to read it.

Impact

A remote attacker who can entice a victim to visit a malicious web site can read any file the user can. Note this vulnerability is not believed to allow file modification (no file writing, inserting, or deleting).

Solution

Apply the patches found in MS02-008.


http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/q317244/download.asp

Microsoft has confirmed that this problem could result in some degree of security vulnerability in Microsoft XML 4.0. This problem was corrected in Microsoft XML 4.0 Service Pack 1.

To download MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 1, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/766/msdncompositedoc.xml

MSXML can also be installed separately. MSXML is installed as a DLL in the System32 subfolder of the Windows operating system folder. On most systems, this will likely be C:\Windows or C:\winnt. If you have any or all of the following files in the System32 folder, you need the patch:

    • Msxml2.dll
    • Msxml3.dll
    • Msxml4.dll

If you have only Msxml.dll, you do not need the patch because this is an earlier, unaffected version.

Vendor Information

328163
 

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References

Acknowledgements

This document was written by Jeffrey S. Havrilla based on information provided by Microsoft.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2002-0057
Severity Metric: 10.40
Date Public: 2001-12-17
Date First Published: 2002-10-01
Date Last Updated: 2002-10-02 15:38 UTC
Document Revision: 28

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