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Office FrontpageApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2008-4255

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-12-10
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
Heap-based buffer overflow in mscomct2.ocx (aka Windows Common ActiveX control or Microsoft Animation ActiveX control) in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Studio .NET 2002 SP1 and 2003 SP1, Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 and 9.0 SP1 and SP2, and Office Project 2003 SP3 and 2007 Gold and SP1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via an AVI file with a crafted stream length, which triggers an "allocation error" and memory corruption, aka "Windows Common AVI Parsing Overflow 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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

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

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.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch www.securityfocus.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Apply Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-070 (the official patch for this vulnerability); for long-term remediation, migrate from end-of-life products (VB 6.0, VS.NET 2002/2003, Visual FoxPro 8.0/9.0, Office Project 2003/2007) to supported versions

  1. Obtain the Microsoft security update MS08-070 from the official Microsoft Update catalog or Windows Update
  2. Ensure the system has the latest Windows updates installed before applying this specific patch
  3. Download and install the security update for the affected component mscomct2.ocx (Windows Common ActiveX control)
  4. Verify the update was successfully applied by checking the installed updates in Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features > View installed updates
  5. For legacy systems (VB 6.0, VS.NET 2002/2003, Visual FoxPro 8.0/9.0), consider migrating to supported versions as these products have reached end of support
Caveat This vulnerability affects end-of-life software; migrating to modern versions may require code changes and license updates; legacy ActiveX controls may have compatibility issues in newer Windows versions

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2008-4255 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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