Zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer

Use-after-free
CVE-2008-4844

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2008120904 - Remote code execution in Microsoft Windows

Vulnerable component: Microsoft Internet Explorer

CVE-ID: CVE-2008-4844

CVSSv3 score: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C

CWE-ID: CWE-416 - Use After Free

Description:

The vulnerability alows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system.

The weakness exists due to use-after-free error in the CRecordInstance::TransferToDestination function in mshtml.dll in Microsoft Internet Explorer. A remote attacker can construct a specially crafted Web page, trick the victim into viewing it, trigger memory corruption and execute arbitrary code via DSO bindings involving an XML Island,  XML DSOs, or Tabular Data Control (TDC) in a crafted HTML or XML document.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability results in arbitrary code execution on the vulnerable system.

Note: the vulnerability was being actively exploited.

Public Exploits:

- Microsoft Internet Explorer - XML Parsing Buffer Overflow (Windows Vista) [Exploit-DB]

- Microsoft Internet Explorer - Data Binding Memory Corruption (MS08-078) (Metasploit) [Exploit-DB]

- Microsoft Internet Explorer - XML Parsing Remote Buffer Overflow [Exploit-DB]

External links:

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms08-078
https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/961051
https://secunia.com/advisories/33089
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=123015308222620&w=2
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/493881
https://securityandthe.net/2008/12/17/its-official-ms08-78-fixing-critical-ie-bug/

About zero-day vulnerabilities

Zero-day vulnerability is an undisclosed vulnerability in software that hackers can exploit to compromise computer programs, gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, penetrate networks, etc. We consider vulnerability a zero-day when there is no solution provided from software vendor and the vulnerability is being actively exploited by malicious actors.

Zero-day candidate is a potential zero-day vulnerability in software which might have been used in targeted attacks, however there is no evidence to support this suggestion.