CVE-2005-0063

published 2005-05-02

CVE-2005-0063: The document processing application used by the Windows Shell in Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 allows remote attackers to execute…

Priority P3 52 high 7.5 CVSS 2.0

AV N AC L Au N C P I P A P

EXPLOIT

The document processing application used by the Windows Shell in Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by modifying the CLSID stored in a file so that it is processed by HTML Application Host (MSHTA), as demonstrated using a Microsoft Word document.

Affected

4 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
microsoft	windows_2003_server	—	—
microsoft	windows_2003_server	—	—
microsoft	windows_2003_server	—	—
microsoft	windows_2003_server	—	—

Detection & IOCs extracted from sources · hover to see the quote

command ms05016.exe test.hta SAVE.DDD↗

filename test.hta↗

filename SAVE.DDD↗

process mshta.exe↗

• → Detect files with a modified CLSID that routes document processing to MSHTA (HTML Application Host) instead of the expected handler — a non-.hta file being opened by mshta.exe is highly suspicious. ↗
• → Look for files with the OLE Compound Document magic bytes (D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1) that contain embedded HTA/VBScript content — the PoC embeds a VBScript block inside an OLE-structured file. ↗
• → Scan for files with unusual or non-standard extensions (e.g., .DDD) that contain OLE compound document structure and embedded script content, as the exploit crafts such files to be executed by double-click. ↗
• → Detect the embedded VBScript/HTA pattern '<script language="VBScript">' inside OLE compound document files, which is the payload structure used by this exploit. ↗

• · The exploit requires the victim to double-click the crafted file; it is not a drive-by or zero-interaction exploit. The CLSID in the file must be modified to point to MSHTA for the attack to succeed. ↗
• · The attacker must supply a separate .hta payload file; the PoC tool (ms05016.exe) wraps it into the malicious compound document. Detection should cover both the wrapper file and the .hta payload. ↗

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