Update Protection against Microsoft Visual Basic ActiveX Controls Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities (MS08-070)

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2008-170
Date Published:
Severity:
Last Updated:
Source:	Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-070
Industry Reference(s):	CVE-2008-4252 CVE-2008-4253 CVE-2008-4254 CVE-2008-4255 CVE-2008-4256
Protection Provided by:	VPN-1 NGX R65 NGX R62 NGX R61 NGX R60 VSX NGX R65 InterSpect NGX IPS-1 IPS-1 IPS-1 NGX R65
Who is Vulnerable? Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 SP1 Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 SP1 Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1 Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2 Microsoft Office FrontPage 2002 SP3 Microsoft Office Project 2003 SP2 Microsoft Office Project 2003 SP3 Microsoft Office Project 2007 Microsoft Office Project 2007 SP1
Vulnerability Description Several remote code execution vulnerabilities have been reported in Microsoft Visual Basic. Visual Basic (VB) is an event-driven programming language that was created by Microsoft for building stand alone Windows-based programs. Developers can use it for quickly building GUI applications. The flaw is located in multiple ActiveX Controls of Visual Basic. A remote attacker could exploit this issue by convincing a user to visit a specially crafted HTML document or open a malicious web page. Successful exploitation could result in remote code execution on the target system once the malicious page is loaded.

Update/Patch Available
Apply patches:
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-070

Vulnerability Details
CVE-2008-4252: The vulnerability is due to a memory corruption error in the VB DataGrid ActiveX control when it fails to properly initialize.

CVE-2008-4253: The vulnerability is due to a memory corruption error in the VB FlexGrid ActiveX control when it fails to properly initialize.

CVE-2008-4254: The vulnerability is due to a memory corruption error in the VB Hierarchical FlexGrid ActiveX control when it fails to properly initialize.

CVE-2008-4255: The vulnerability is due to an allocation error in the Windows common ActiveX control for VB when parsing a specially crafted AVI file.

CVE-2008-4256: The vulnerability is due to a memory corruption error in the VB Charts ActiveX control when handling malformed strings given to the ColumnLabel method.

To trigger these issues, an attacker can create a malicious web page that initiates the vulnerable COM Objects. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows execution of arbitrary code on the vulnerable system.

Protection Overview
By enabling this protection, SmartDefense will detect and block the vulnerable ActiveX Controls. Depending on the traffic mix, activating this protection may result in performance degradation.

In order for the protection to be activated, update your VPN-1 product to the latest SmartDefense update. For information on how to update SmartDefense, go to SBP-2006-05, Protection tab and select the version of your choice.

To configure the defense, select your product from the list below and follow the related protection steps.

VPN-1 NGX R65 & R62

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the SmartDefense tab, click Web Intelligence > HTTP Client Protections > Microsoft Internet Explorer Vulnerabilities > Block Visual Basic ActiveX Controls Remote Code Execution (MS08-070).
2. In the configuration pane, under Settings > Mode, check Active.
3. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

For CVE-2008-4252:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic DataGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4253:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4254:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Hierarchical FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4255:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Windows common AVI parsing overflow (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4256:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Charts ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

VPN-1 NGX R61 & R60

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the Web Intelligence tree, click HTTP Client Protections > Microsoft Internet Explorer Vulnerabilities.
2. Select the following:

Block Visual Basic ActiveX Controls Remote Code Execution (MS08-070)

3. Install security policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

For CVE-2008-4252:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic DataGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4253:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4254:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Hierarchical FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

VPN-1 VSX NGX R65

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

For CVE-2008-4252:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic DataGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4253:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4254:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Hierarchical FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4255:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Windows common AVI parsing overflow (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4256:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Charts ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

InterSpect NGX

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the left pane, select Profiles > Default Protection and select the Web Intelligence page of the profile.
2. In the Web Intelligence tree, click HTTP Client Protections > Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerabilities.
3. Select the following:

Block Visual Basic ActiveX Controls Remote Code Execution (MS08-070)

4. Install security policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

For CVE-2008-4252:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic DataGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4253:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

For CVE-2008-4254:
Attack Name: Web Client Enforcement Violation
Attack Information: Visual Basic Hierarchical FlexGrid ActiveX memory corruption (MS08-070)

IPS-1 & IPS-1 NGX R65

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the IPS-1 Policy Manager, click on the Protection tab.
2. In the Protection tree, click Application Intelligence > Badfiles, and select the ActiveX Parser protection group
3. Click Visual Basic ActiveX Controls Vulnerabilities (MS08-070) (IPS-1 NGX R65 only).
4. In the configuration pane, under Settings, check Active.
5. Click on Install Policy.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
Upon attack, the following entries will be logged:

Alert Name: Badfiles ActiveX class in HTML file Alert/Filter
Description: Visual Basic ActiveX Controls Vulnerabilities (MS08-070)

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