Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2006-1540

MSO.DLL in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP (2002), and Office 2003 allows user-assisted attackers to cause a denial of service and execute arbitrary code via multiple attack vectors, as originally demonstrated using a crafted document record with a malformed string, as demonstrated by replacing a certain "01 00 00 00" byte sequence with an "FF FF FF FF" byte sequence, possibly causing an invalid array index, in (1) an Excel .xls document, which triggers an access violation in ole32.dll; (2) an Excel .xlw document, which triggers an access violation in excel.exe; (3) a Word document, which triggers an access violation in mso.dll in winword.exe; and (4) a PowerPoint document, which triggers an access violation in powerpnt.txt. NOTE: after the initial disclosure, this issue was demonstrated by triggering an integer overflow using an inconsistent size for a Unicode "Sheet Name" string.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2006-1540 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 1 product from microsoft organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Originally identified in 2006, this vulnerability predates many modern security frameworks and practices. The vulnerability landscape of that era was characterized by different threat models and less mature defense mechanisms compared to contemporary standards.

Published

2006-03-30T11:02:00.000

Last Modified

2025-04-03T01:03:51.193

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 9.3 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: MEDIUM
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
Availability Impact: COMPLETE

Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-94

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	microsoft	office	*	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2000	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2000	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2000	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2000	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2000	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2000	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2003	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2003	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2003	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	2004	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	v.x	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	xp	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	xp	Yes
Application	microsoft	office	xp	Yes

References

http://secunia.com/advisories/21012 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://securitytracker.com/id?1015855 Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/609868 Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource ([email protected])
http://www.osvdb.org/27150 Broken Link ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/439697/100/0/threaded ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/17252 Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/18889 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA06-192A.html Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource ([email protected])
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2006/2756 Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2006/ms06-038 ([email protected])
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27607 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27609 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A639 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/1615 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/21012 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://securitytracker.com/id?1015855 Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/609868 Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.osvdb.org/27150 Broken Link (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/439697/100/0/threaded (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/17252 Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/18889 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA06-192A.html Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2006/2756 Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2006/ms06-038 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27607 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/27609 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A639 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/1615 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For microsoft's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.