------------------------------------------------------------------------ NPS Datastore server DLL side loading vulnerability ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yorick Koster, September 2015 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A DLL side loading vulnerability was found in the NPS Datastore server DLL that ships with Windows Vista. This issue can be exploited by loading the affected DLL as an embedded OLE object. When instantiating the object Windows will try to load the DLL iasdatastore2.dll from the current working directory. If an attacker convinces the user to open a specially crafted (Office) document from a directory also containing the attacker's DLL file, it is possible to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the target user. This can potentially result in the attacker taking complete control of the affected system. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ See also ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - CVE-2016-0041 - MS16-014: Security Update for Microsoft Windows to Address Remote Code Execution (3134228) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tested versions ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This issue was successfully verified on Windows Vista + Office 2010 32-bit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fix ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Microsoft released MS16-014 that fixes this vulnerability. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Details ------------------------------------------------------------------------ https://www.securify.nl/advisory/SFY20150905/nps_datastore_server_dll_side_loading_vulnerability.html