Notified:  January 10, 2005 Updated: January 18, 2005

Status

Unknown

Vendor Statement

Thank you for your note. A buffer overflow is not needed to execute code with a .hlp file. A .hlp file type as referred to in the public report is for the most part equivalent to a .exe file and therefore is able to execute code as part of is documented functionality. There is no remote angle to this report, the attacker must persuade the target to download and execute the malicious file. Essentially, what flashsky is saying is if I can get a .exe file on your machine, I can execute code. On another note, please reconsider using the word "Thanks" in the credit section as this issue was not responsibly disclosed to Microsoft. Kind regards, Brian

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

US-CERT has no additional comments at this time.