Microsoft MSHTML Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

 Microsoft MSHTML Remote Code Execution Vulnerability  (CVE-2021-40444)

 

Released Sep 7 , 2021

 

Microsoft is investigating reports of a remote code execution vulnerability in MSHTML that affects Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is aware of targeted attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability by using specially-crafted Microsoft Office documents.

An attacker could craft a malicious ActiveX control to be used by a Microsoft Office document that hosts the browser rendering engine. The attacker would then have to convince the user to open the malicious document. 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.

A vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Windows, a remote user can exploit this vulnerability to trigger remote code execution on the targeted system.

According to the company, this vulnerability has already been used in targeted attacks against Microsoft Office users. In attempt to exploit this vulnerability, attackers create a document with a specially-crafted object. If a user opens the document, MS Office will download and execute a malicious script.

 

 

reference: microsoft,securelist