Microsoft Office XP Sends Potentially Sensitive Information to Microsoft Via the Network When an Error Occurs
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SecurityTracker Alert ID: 1002559 |
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SecurityTracker URL: http://securitytracker.com/id/1002559
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CVE Reference:
GENERIC-MAP-NOMATCH
(Links to External Site)
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Updated: Oct 16 2001
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Original Entry Date: Oct 16 2001
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Impact:
Disclosure of system information, Disclosure of user information
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Version(s): Office XP (on any version of Windows)
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Description:
The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Center (CIAC) warned of an "Error Reporting" feature in Microsoft Office that causes potentially sensitive user information to be sent over the network to Microsoft when errors occur.
It is reported that, in the default configuration, the Error Reporting feature may send portions of the user's document contents to Microsoft along with debugging information. No further details were provided.
The CIAC advisory is available at:
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/m-005.shtml
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Impact:
Portions of the local user's document contents may be sent to Microsoft along with debugging information when an error occurs in the application.
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Solution:
According to CIAC, Error Reporting can be disabled in Office XP (on any version of Windows) by using the Registry script available at:
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/office/UnWatsonXP.reg.
Double clicking on a .REG file will run Regedit and make the changes in the file. The script reportedly disables Error Reporting for the current user only and therefore must be run by each user on a system. It is also reported that new users that are created after the script is run will automatically have the changes made for them and do not need to re-run the script.
It is reported that users must have administrative privileges to run the script.
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Vendor URL: www.microsoft.com/technet/security/ (Links to External Site)
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Cause:
Exception handling error
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Underlying OS:
Windows (Me), Windows (NT), Windows (95), Windows (98), Windows (2000), Windows (XP)
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Message History:
None.
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Source Message Contents
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Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 14:11:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: BULLETIN M-005 Office XP Error Reporting May Send Sensitive Documents to Microsoft
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[For Public Release]
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
__________________________________________________________
The U.S. Department of Energy
Computer Incident Advisory Center
___ __ __ _ ___
/ | /_\ /
\___ __|__ / \ \___
__________________________________________________________
INFORMATION BULLETIN
Office XP Error Reporting May Send Sensitive Documents to Microsoft
October 15, 2001 20:00 GMT Number M-005
______________________________________________________________________________
PROBLEM: Microsoft Office XP and Internet Explorer version 5 and later
are configured to automatically send debugging information to
Microsoft in the event of a program crash. The debugging
information includes a memory dump which may contain all or
part of the document being viewed or edited. This debug message
potentially could contain sensitive, private information.
PLATFORM: Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and later
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft has indicated that this will be a feature of all new
Microsoft products.
DAMAGE: Sensitive or private information could inadvertently be sent to
Microsoft. Some simple testing of the feature found document
information in one message out of three.
SOLUTION: Apply the registry changes listed in this bulletin to disable
the automatic sending of debugging information. If you are
working with sensitive information and a program asks to send
debugging information to Microsoft, you should click No.
______________________________________________________________________________
VULNERABILITY The risk is MEDIUM/LOW. Sensitive documents could be sent to
ASSESSMENT: Microsoft.
______________________________________________________________________________
LINKS:
CIAC BULLETIN: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/m-005.shtml
PATCHES: Office XP:
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/office/UnWatsonXP.reg
IE:
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/office/UnWatsonIE6.reg
______________________________________________________________________________
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