Mar 13, 2011
General Information
Executive Summary
This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability in DirectShow and one privately reported vulnerability in Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Microsoft Digital Video Recording (.dvr-ms) file. In all cases, a user cannot be forced to open the file; for an attack to be successful, a user must be convinced to do so.
This security update is rated Critical for affected editions of Windows XP (including Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005); all supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7; and Windows Media Center TV Pack for Windows Vista. This security update is also rated Important for all supported editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based systems. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.
The security update addresses the vulnerabilities by modifying the way library files and Windows media files are opened. For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.
Recommendation. The majority of customers have automatic updating enabled and will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically. Customers who have not enabled automatic updating need to check for updates and install this update manually. For information about specific configuration options in automatic updating, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 294871.
For administrators and enterprise installations, or end users who want to install this security update manually, Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately using update management software, or by checking for updates using the Microsoft Update service.
See also the section, Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance, later in this bulletin.
