Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-002)

--------------------------------------



Patch Available for "Malformed Conversion Data" Vulnerability

Originally Posted: January 20, 2000



Summary

=======

Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security vulnerability in a

utility that converts Japanese, Korean and  Chinese Microsoft(r) Word(r) 5

documents to more-recent formats. The primary shipment vehicles for the

utility are the  Japanese, Korean and Chinese (both Simplified and

Traditional) versions of Word and PowerPoint(r) for Windows. (A

comprehensive listing of affected products is provided below) The

vulnerability could allow arbitrary code to be executed on  a machine that

opened a specially-modified Word 5 document using an affected version of the

utility.



Frequently asked questions regarding this vulnerability can be found at

http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/MS00-002faq.asp.



Issue

=====

Microsoft Office includes a conversion utility that converts older Word

documents to more recent formats. The conversion  utility for Word 5

documents in East Asian languages (Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and

Traditional Chinese) has an  unchecked buffer. By using a hexadecimal editor

to insert specially-malformed information into a document, a malicious user

could cause Word to run code of his or her choice when the document was

opened using an affected version of the converter.



A Word 5 converter installs by default as part of Word and PowerPoint, and

can be installed at user behest as part of a  converter pack. However, the

vulnerability affects only the East Asian language versions of the

converter, and only the  Windows versions of them. No other language

versions of the converter are affected, and no version of the converter for

Macintosh is affected.



Affected Software Versions

==========================

 - Microsoft Converter Pack 2000 for Windows

 - Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows with Multilanguage Pack

 - Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) versions of:

    - Microsoft Word 97, 98 and 2000 for Windows, which is available as a

      standalone product or as part of:

       - Office 97, Office 97 Powered by Word 98, Office 2000 for Windows

       - Works Suite 2000 for Windows

    - Microsoft PowerPoint 97 and 2000 for Windows, which is available as a

      standalone product or as part of:

       - Office 97, Office 97 Powered by Word 98, Office 2000 for Windows



Patch Availability

==================

 - Word 97 or 98, PowerPoint 98:

    - US: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloaddetails/ww5pkg.htm

    - Japan: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/japan/downloaddetails/

      MalformedData-97.htm

    - Korea: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/korea/downloaddetails/

      MalformedData-97.htm

    - China: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/china/downloaddetails/

      MalformedData-97.htm

    - Taiwan: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/taiwan/downloaddetails/

      MalformedData-97.htm

    - Hong Kong: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/hk/downloaddetails/

      MalformedData-97.htm



 - Converter Pack 2000; Office 2000 with Multilanguage Pack; Word 2000,

PowerPoint 2000:

    - US: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloaddetails/ww5pkg.htm

    - Japan: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/japan/downloaddetails/2000/

      MalformedData-2K.htm

    - Korea: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/korea/downloaddetails/2000/

      MalformedData-2K.htm

    - China: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/china/downloaddetails/2000/

      MalformedData-2K.htm

    - Taiwan: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/taiwan/downloaddetails/2000/

      MalformedData-2K.htm

    - Hong Kong: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/hk/downloaddetails/2000/

      MalformedData-2K.htm



NOTE: Line breaks have been inserted into the above URLs for readability.



NOTE: Additional security patches are available at the Microsoft Download

Center



More Information

================

Please see the following references for more information related to this

issue.

 - Frequently Asked Questions: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-002,

   http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/MS00-002faq.asp.

 - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q249881,

   WD: Patch Available for "Malformed Conversion Data" Vulnerability (East

   Asian Word),

   http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q249/8/81.asp.

   (Note: It may take 24 hours from the original posting of this bulletin

for

   this KB article to be visible.)

 - Microsoft Security Advisor web site,

   http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.asp.



Obtaining Support on this Issue

===============================

This is a fully supported patch. Information on contacting Microsoft

Technical

Support is available at

http://support.microsoft.com/support/contact/default.asp.



Revisions

=========

 - January 20, 2000: Bulletin Created.



------------------------------------------------------------------------



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