Microsoft Graphics Component: memory corruption flaw under attack

What is affected

Microsoft Graphics Component is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

Microsoft Graphics Component contains a memory corruption vulnerability which can allow for remote code execution.

What an attacker can do

This is a memory corruption flaw. It lets an attacker corrupt the program's memory by feeding it specially crafted content: a web page, a file or a network message. The result ranges from a crash to the attacker running their own code.

How it is reached

Needs access to the device or a file opened on it

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

Yes, the victim must open or click something

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer Microsoft Graphics Component at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on February 15, 2022, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by August 15, 2022, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 85% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99.7% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 7.8 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

GDI+ in Microsoft Windows Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2; Office 2003 SP3, 2007 SP3, and 2010 SP1 and SP2; Office Compatibility Pack SP3; and Lync 2010, 2010 Attendee, 2013, and Basic 2013 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted TIFF image, as demonstrated by an image in a Word document, and exploited in the wild in October and November 2013.