Fortinet Discovers Microsoft Excel Vulnerability

Summary

Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs has discovered memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel.

Solutions

FortiGuard Labs released the following FortiGate IPS signature which covers this specific vulnerability:

MS.Excel.StartObject.Pair.Memory.Corruption
Released Mar 30, 2010
Users should apply the solution provided by Microsoft.

Additional Information

The vulnerability is triggered when opening and rendering an Excel file. A remote attacker could craft a malicious document which exploits this vulnerability, allowing him to compromise a vulnerable system.

Acknowledgement

Bing Liu of Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs

IPS Subscription

Fortinet customers who subscribe to Fortinet's intrusion prevention (IPS) service should be protected against this vulnerability with the appropriate configuration parameters in place. Fortinet's IPS service is one component of FortiGuard Subscription Services, which also offer comprehensive solutions such as antivirus, Web content filtering and antispam capabilities. These services enable protection against threats on both application and network layers. FortiGuard Services are continuously updated by FortiGuard Labs, which enables Fortinet to deliver a combination of multi-layered security intelligence and true zero-day protection from new and emerging threats. These updates are delivered to all FortiGate, FortiMail and FortiClient products. Fortinet strictly follows responsible disclosure guidelines to ensure optimum protection during a threat's lifecycle.