Microsoft Windows Media Center Vulnerability

A vulnerability exists in Windows Media Center that could allow remote code execution if Windows Media Center opens a specially crafted Media Center link (.mcl) file that references malicious code. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Customers whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must entice a user to install the .mcl file on the local machine. Malicious code referenced by the .mcl file could then be executed from an attacker-controlled location. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Media Center link files are handled.

This vulnerability has been publicly disclosed. It has been assigned Common Vulnerability and Exposure number CVE-2015-2509. When this security bulletin was originally issued Microsoft had not received any information to indicate that this vulnerability had been publicly used to attack customers.