What is the scope of the advisory?
Microsoft is aware of a new vulnerability report affecting Animated Cursor, a component of Microsoft Windows. This affects the software that is listed in the “Overview” section. It is similar in scope to other Animated Cursor issues.

Is this a security vulnerability that requires Microsoft to issue a security update?
Yes.

What causes this threat?
The threat is caused by insufficient format validation prior to rendering cursors, animated cursors, and icons.

What does this feature do?
Animated cursors are a feature that allows a series of frames, one after another, to appear at the mouse pointer location instead of a single image, thus producing a short loop of animation. The Animated Cursors feature is designated by the .ani suffix.

What might an attacker use this function to do?
An attacker could try to exploit the vulnerability by creating a specially crafted web page. An attacker could also create a specially-crafted email message and send it to an affected system. Upon viewing a web page, previewing or reading a specially crafted message, or opening a specially crafted email attachment the attacker could cause the affected system to execute code. While animated cursors typically are associated with the .ani file extension, a successful attack is not constrained by this file type.