Security Update for Microsoft Office (November 2018) (macOS)

high Nessus Plugin ID 118934

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Synopsis

An application installed on the remote macOS or Mac OS X host is affected by remote code execution vulnerability.

Description

The Microsoft Office application installed on the remote macOS or Mac OS X host is missing a security update. It is, therefore, affected by the following vulnerability:

- A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Excel software when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

Exploitation of the vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted file with an affected version of Microsoft Excel.
In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending the specially crafted file to the user and convincing the user to open the file. In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website (or leverage a compromised website that accepts or hosts user-provided content) containing a specially crafted file designed to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit the website. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to click a link, typically by way of an enticement in an email or instant message, and then convince them to open the specially crafted file. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Microsoft Excel handles objects in memory (CVE-2018-8574, CVE-2018-8577)

Solution

Microsoft has released a set of patches for Microsoft Office for Mac.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 118934

File Name: macos_ms18_nov_office.nasl

Version: 1.8

Type: local

Agent: macosx

Family: MacOS X Local Security Checks

Published: 11/14/2018

Updated: 7/22/2024

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9.3

Temporal Score: 6.9

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2018-8577

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:microsoft:powerpoint, cpe:/a:microsoft:onenote, cpe:/a:microsoft:excel, cpe:/a:microsoft:outlook, cpe:/o:apple:mac_os_x, cpe:/a:microsoft:excel_for_mac, cpe:/a:microsoft:office

Required KB Items: Host/MacOSX/Version

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 11/13/2018

Vulnerability Publication Date: 11/13/2018

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2018-8574, CVE-2018-8577

BID: 105833, 105834

Detections

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