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

high Nessus Plugin ID 117409

Synopsis

An application installed on the remote macOS or Mac OS X host is affected by multiple vulnerabilities.

Description

The Microsoft Office 2016 application or Microsoft Lync for Mac 2011 application installed on the remote macOS or Mac OS X host is missing a security update. It is, therefore, affected by the following vulnerabilities:

- 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. (CVE-2018-8331)

- A remote code execution vulnerability exists when the Windows font library improperly handles specially crafted embedded fonts.
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability 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.
(CVE-2018-8332)

- An information disclosure vulnerability exists when Microsoft Excel improperly discloses the contents of its memory. An attacker who exploited the vulnerability could access information previously deleted from the active worksheet. (CVE-2018-8429)

- A security feature bypass vulnerability exists when Lync for Mac 2011 fails to properly sanitize specially crafted messages. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause a targeted Lync for Mac 2011 user's system to browse to an attacker-specified website or automatically download file types on the operating system's safe file type list. (CVE-2018-8474)

Solution

Microsoft has released a set of patches for Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac. Microsoft is not planning on fixing the vulnerability in Microsoft Lync for Mac 2011. Microsoft recommends upgrading to Skype for Business on Mac.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?17ce16bb

http://www.nessus.org/u?37331e48

http://www.nessus.org/u?9373baa3

http://www.nessus.org/u?a4ceab8d

http://www.nessus.org/u?393eee33

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 117409

File Name: macos_ms18_sep_office.nasl

Version: 1.8

Type: local

Agent: macosx

Published: 9/11/2018

Updated: 11/1/2019

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: 7.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2018-8332

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.8

Temporal Score: 7.9

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:apple:mac_os_x, cpe:/a:microsoft:office, cpe:/a:microsoft:excel_for_mac, cpe:/a:microsoft:lync

Required KB Items: Host/MacOSX/Version

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/11/2018

Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/11/2018

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2018-8331, CVE-2018-8332, CVE-2018-8429, CVE-2018-8474