Technical Information

Brief overview of the risk:
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an 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. Significant user interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability.
Detailed Information on the risk:
This vulnerability could not be exploited automatically through a Web-based attack scenario. An attacker would have to host a Web site that contains an RTF file that is used to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit a malicious Web site. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade them to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link that takes them to the attacker’s site, and then convince the user to open the file.
The vulnerability cannot be exploited automatically through e-mail. For an attack to be successful a user must open an attachment that is sent in an e-mail message and then interact with the embedded OLE object within the RTF file.Further information on this exploit is available at : MS07-011