Risk
High
Date Discovered
September 9, 2008
Description
Microsoft GDI+ is prone to a remote memory-corruption vulnerability that occurs when an application that uses the library tries to process a specially crafted EMF (Enhanced Metafile) image file.
Successfully exploiting this issue would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the currently logged-in user.
UPDATE (March 25, 2009): Further investigation reveals that technical details and an exploit regarding 'GpFont.SetData()', which were added to this BID on March 24, 2009, actually pertain to a new issue. Please see BID 34250 'Microsoft GDI+ EMF 'GpFont.SetData()' Buffer Overflow Vulnerability' for details.
Recommendations
Run all software as a nonprivileged user with minimal access rights.
To reduce the impact of latent vulnerabilities, always run nonadministrative software as an unprivileged user with minimal access rights.Deploy network intrusion detection systems to monitor network traffic for malicious activity.
Deploy NIDS to monitor network traffic for signs of anomalous or suspicious activity. This includes but is not limited to requests that include NOP sleds and unexplained incoming and outgoing traffic. This may indicate exploit attempts or activity that results from successful exploits.Do not follow links provided by unknown or untrusted sources.
Web users should be cautious about following links to sites that are provided by unfamiliar or suspicious sources.
Filtering HTML from emails may help remove a possible vector for transmitting malicious links to users.Implement multiple redundant layers of security.
Since attackers may be able to execute arbitrary code, implement memory-protection schemes (such as nonexecutable stack and heap configurations and randomly mapped memory segments) to reduce the chance of a successful exploit.
Microsoft has released an advisory along with fixes to address this issue. Please see the references for more information.
Credits
Bing Liu of Fortinet's FortiGuard Global Security Resaerch Team
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