Array index error, leading to heap based buffer overflow (two occurrences of invalid write by one byte) was found in the way OpenOffice.org performed scanning of the typography information of certain Microsoft Word Binary File Format (.DOC) files with certain user defined list styles (WW8). If a user opened a specially-crafted DOC file in OpenOffice.org suite tool (oowriter), it could lead to denial of service (oowriter executable crash), or possibly, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running OpenOffice.org Writer.

References: [1] http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/drosenbe/research.html

Acknowledgements:

Red Hat would like to thank OpenOffice.org for reporting this issue. Upstream acknowledges Dan Rosenberg of Virtual Security Research as the original reporter.