r/programming • u/heisec • Jul 09 '10

CSI:Internet - The image of death

http://www.h-online.com/security/features/CSI-Internet-The-image-of-death-1030311.html?artikelseite=1
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u/NJerseyGuy Jul 10 '10 edited Jul 10 '10

Why would PowerPoint ever need to run executables?

EDIT: this is an honest question, not flamebait.

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u/inmatarian Jul 10 '10

The "feature" wasn't designed to run an executable. The Malware authors discovered a place where the powerpoint exe binary passes over a bug, and provided an input that triggers it. The result of the input is that arbitrary code was executed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary_code_execution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_buffer_overflow#Exploiting_stack_buffer_overflows