Patch for ANI Cursor Vulnerability

Patch for a vulnerability that requires user interaction by viewing a malicious Windows animated cursor (.ANI) file An unspecified vulnerability exists within Microsoft Windows which may possibly allow for a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code under the context of the logged in user.

This vulnerability requires user interaction by viewing a malicious Windows animated cursor (.ANI) file. .ANI files are commonly used by web developers to display custom cursor animations to enhance web-site experiences.

The most potent attack method is by embedding a malicious .ANI file within an HTML web page. Doing so allows the vulnerability to be exploited with minimal user interaction by simply coaxing a user to follow a hyperlink and visit a malicious web site. Other exploit vectors exist including Microsoft Office applications since they also rely on the same .ANI processing code, making e-mail delivery also a potent threat by using Microsoft Office attachments.

Since .ANI processing is performed by USER32.dll and not the attack vector application itself, all attack vectors have the potential to use a similar exploit with similar address offsets targeted at Windows directly, allowing for a very reliable exploit.

Users who install this patch should note:
This patch is a temporary fix and should be removed before the official Microsoft patch is installed.
It is recommended that users test this patch thoroughly before installing.
This patch only supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista.
This patch will not work on x64 or Itanium architectures.
To install silently run this command:
WindowsAnimationPatchSetup.exe /qn
To uninstall silently run this command:
msiexec /qn /x {DFEF2523-72D0-483F-A1C2-FC29B71B166A}
This patch includes a checker that will uninstall itself when it detects a Microsoft patch has been installed. To disable the checker, run the installation with this command line (command is case-sensitive): WindowsAnimationPatchSetup.exe NOCHECKER=1