CVE-2018-25215: Excel Password Recovery Buffer Overflow

CVE-2018-25215 Overview

CVE-2018-25215 is a local buffer overflow vulnerability in Excel Password Recovery Professional version 8.2.0.0. The vulnerability allows attackers to cause a denial of service condition by supplying an excessively long string to the "E-Mail and Registrations Code" field within the application's registration interface. When a user pastes a crafted payload containing 5000 bytes of data into the registration field and clicks the Register button, the application crashes due to improper boundary validation.

Critical Impact

Local attackers can crash Excel Password Recovery Professional by exploiting the buffer overflow in the registration dialog, resulting in application denial of service and potential data loss for users attempting password recovery operations.

Affected Products

• Excel Password Recovery Professional 8.2.0.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-26 - CVE-2018-25215 published to NVD
• 2026-03-26 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2018-25215

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-787 (Out-of-Bounds Write), which occurs when the software writes data past the end of an intended buffer. In this case, the Excel Password Recovery Professional application fails to properly validate the length of user-supplied input in the registration dialog's email and registration code fields before copying that data to a fixed-size buffer.

The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction to exploit. An attacker must have the ability to input data into the application's registration interface, and the victim must click the Register button to trigger the overflow condition. While the attack complexity is low, the impact is limited to availability—specifically causing the application to crash without affecting confidentiality or integrity of data.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient input validation in the registration form handler. The application allocates a fixed-size buffer to store the email and registration code input but does not perform adequate length checking before copying user-supplied data. When input exceeding the buffer's capacity (approximately 5000 bytes) is provided, the write operation overflows the buffer boundaries, corrupting adjacent memory and causing the application to crash.

This is a classic example of unsafe string handling where the developer failed to implement proper boundary checks or use safer string manipulation functions that prevent buffer overflows.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for CVE-2018-25215 is local, requiring the attacker to have access to a system where Excel Password Recovery Professional is installed. The exploitation process involves:

1. Launching the Excel Password Recovery Professional application
2. Navigating to the registration dialog
3. Pasting a payload of approximately 5000 bytes into the "E-Mail and Registrations Code" field
4. Clicking the Register button to trigger the buffer overflow

The vulnerability results in an application crash (denial of service) rather than code execution, limiting the potential impact to disrupting the user's password recovery workflow. Technical details and proof-of-concept information can be found in the Exploit-DB #46003 entry.

Detection Methods for CVE-2018-25215

Indicators of Compromise

• Application crash events logged in Windows Event Viewer with Excel Password Recovery Professional as the faulting module
• Unexpected termination of the password recovery application immediately after registration attempts
• Memory access violation errors associated with the registration dialog component

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for Windows application crash events (Event ID 1000) related to Excel Password Recovery Professional processes
• Implement endpoint detection rules to identify clipboard operations with unusually large data strings being pasted into application dialogs
• Configure application whitelisting solutions to track abnormal behavior patterns in password recovery tools

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable Windows Error Reporting to capture detailed crash dump information for forensic analysis
• Deploy endpoint monitoring solutions to track application stability and identify repeated crash patterns
• Monitor for attempts to access the registration functionality with automated or scripted inputs

How to Mitigate CVE-2018-25215

Immediate Actions Required

• Consider discontinuing use of Excel Password Recovery Professional 8.2.0.0 if no patch is available from the vendor
• Restrict access to the application to trusted users only to minimize exposure to potential exploitation
• Implement application control policies to monitor and restrict the installation of vulnerable password recovery tools

Patch Information

No vendor patch information is currently available for this vulnerability. Users should check the vendor's website for potential updates or consider alternative password recovery solutions. The VulnCheck Security Advisory may contain additional remediation guidance.

Workarounds

• Avoid using the registration functionality until a patched version is available
• Consider running the application in an isolated environment or virtual machine to contain potential crashes
• Evaluate alternative Excel password recovery tools that do not contain known vulnerabilities
• Implement strict input validation at the organizational level by using application sandboxing technologies

# Configuration example - Application restriction via Windows AppLocker
# Block execution of vulnerable version
New-AppLockerPolicy -RuleType Path -Path "C:\Program Files\Excel Password Recovery Professional\*" -Action Deny -User Everyone