Microsoft Office Publisher Pointer Dereference Vulnerability ( 15 July 2009 )

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that Microsoft Office Publisher opens, imports, and converts files created in versions older than Microsoft Office Publisher 2007. An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by creating a specially crafted Publisher file that could be included as an e-mail attachment, or hosted on a specially crafted or compromised Web site.

If a user were logged on with administrative user rights, 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 affected than users who operate with administrative user rights.