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Office FrontpageApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2008-4253

HIGH · 8.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-12-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
91/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The FlexGrid ActiveX control in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 and 9.0 SP1 and SP2, Office FrontPage 2002 SP3, and Office Project 2003 SP3 does not properly handle errors during access to incorrectly initialized objects, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted HTML document, related to corruption of the "system state," aka "FlexGrid Control Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The FlexGrid ActiveX control in multiple Microsoft products (VB 6.0, Visual FoxPro 8.0/9.0, Office FrontPage 2002, Office Project 2003) contains a memory corruption vulnerability where it fails to properly handle errors during access to incorrectly initialized objects. This leads to system state corruption that can be exploited via malicious HTML documents to achieve arbitrary code execution.

MitigationApply Microsoft security updates for the affected products or disable the FlexGrid ActiveX control in Internet Explorer to prevent exploitation through web-based vectors.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Office FrontpageApplication
Affected:= 2002
ProjectApplication
Affected:= 2003= 2007
Visual BasicApplication
Affected:= 6.0
Visual FoxproApplication
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0
Visual Studio .netApplication
Affected:= 2002= 2003

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
M
Authentication
Single
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Microsoft products
    Check Add/Remove Programs or registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for the presence of Visual Basic 6.0, Visual FoxPro 8.0 or 9.0, FrontPage 2002, Project 2003 or 2007, or Visual Studio .NET 2002 or 2003
    Affected if Any of these affected products and versions are installed on the system
  2. Locate the FlexGrid ActiveX control file
    Search for msflxgrd.ocx in system directories (C:\Windows\System32\ or C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ for 64-bit systems)
    Affected if The file msflxgrd.ocx exists on the system, indicating the FlexGrid control is present
  3. Check if FlexGrid ActiveX control is registered
    Run 'regsvr32 /s msflxgrd.ocx' to attempt registration or check registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1} for the FlexGrid control CLSID
    Affected if The control is registered in the Windows registry, meaning it can be invoked by Internet Explorer or other applications
  4. Verify Internet Explorer ActiveX settings
    Check Internet Explorer settings under Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom Level for 'ActiveX controls and plug-ins' or check registry key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains for sites with explicit ActiveX controls allowed
    Affected if ActiveX controls are enabled in Internet Explorer security zones, particularly the Internet zone, allowing the vulnerable control to be instantiated via malicious web pages
  5. Check FlexGrid control version
    Right-click msflxgrd.ocx, select Properties, and examine the File Version field or use 'wmic datafile where name="C:\\Windows\\System32\\msflxgrd.ocx" get Version'
    Affected if The installed version matches or falls within the affected product version ranges listed in the CVE (VB 6.0, Visual FoxPro 8.0/9.0, FrontPage 2002, Project 2003/2007, Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003)

A system is likely affected if any of the vulnerable Microsoft products are installed and the FlexGrid ActiveX control (msflxgrd.ocx) is present and registered on the system with ActiveX enabled in Internet Explorer.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Microsoft security updates for the affected products or disable the FlexGrid ActiveX control in Internet Explorer to prevent exploitation through web-based vectors.

Fix this in Office Frontpage Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-4253 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data