Microsoft Publisher Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that Microsoft Publisher parses Publisher files. 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, and then convincing the user to insert this specially crafted Publisher file into another Publisher document or open the specially crafted Publisher file. 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.