Share this article
Latest news
With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low
Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app
Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities
Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount
Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier
Outlook’s decades-old vulnerability allowed for catastrophic attacks without any user interaction
Fortunately, the vulnerability was addressed.
2 min. read
Updated onFebruary 16, 2024
updated onFebruary 16, 2024
Share this article
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more
The latest Outlook vulnerability, known as CVE-2024-21413, allowed for relatively easy access into organisations’ infrastructure requiring no used interaction, to catastrophic effect.
The vulnerability, discovered by X user (formerly known as Twitter),Haifei Li, had existed for decades, but according to the user, the vulnerability was overlooked, so it was not addressed at all.
The crazy part for me when discovering the issue is that this is a very easy-to-find problem but overlooked for like decades – nothing special, I just typed the “!” in hyperlinks on Outlook.
CVE-2024-21413 was able to be exploited by unauthorized users in remote situations without requiring user interactions at all. What’s even more intriguing, and equally devastating, if we put it this way, is that the vulnerability would release malware at a mere previewing of the documents. They didn’t need to be open to infect devices.
How would it work? According to Microsoft, the vulnerability allowed attackers to bypass several security procedures and gain high-privilege rights on documents, including editing potentially malicious Protected View documents, by inserting an exclamation mark ‘!’ following the document extension it its embedded link.
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain high privileges, which include read, write, and delete functionality. An attacker could craft a malicious link that bypasses the Protected View Protocol, which leads to the leaking of local NTLM credential information and remote code execution (RCE).
The Redmond-based tech giant managed to quickly address Outlook’s CVE-2024-21413 vulnerability and it is no longer exploitable, just 2 days after the company validated its existence.
The full advisory can be foundhere, with all the details on this vulnerability.
Microsoft has been targeted by exploited recently, so the fact that the Redmond-based tech giant addressed this vulnerability in such as short time, makes sense: for instance,Word and Excelwere the targets of hackers these past days, whileMicrosoft SmartScreenwas also exploited quite severely.
More about the topics:Outlook,Outlook Errors
Flavius Floare
Tech Journalist
Flavius is a writer and a media content producer with a particular interest in technology, gaming, media, film and storytelling.
He’s always curious and ready to take on everything new in the tech world, covering Microsoft’s products on a daily basis. The passion for gaming and hardware feeds his journalistic approach, making him a great researcher and news writer that’s always ready to bring you the bleeding edge!
User forum
0 messages
Sort by:LatestOldestMost Votes
Comment*
Name*
Email*
Commenting as.Not you?
Save information for future comments
Comment
Δ
Flavius Floare
Tech Journalist
Flavius is a writer and a media content producer with a particular interest in technology, gaming, media, film and storytelling.
