Exploit available for year's first critical Windows bug
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A proof-of-concept exploit for a TCP/IP flaw that affects Windows Vista and XP has security researchers ringing alarm bells, with one saying it could "be one of the biggest [vulnerabilities] of 2008."
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Less than a day after Microsoft detailed the latest Windows vulnerability, hackers were hunting for exploit codes. By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb News.
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A researcher has posted exploit code that attackers can use to hijack Windows machines via Yahoo Inc.'s Messenger instant messaging software.
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Security researchers have released attack code that will crash Windows PCs that are susceptible to a recently patched bug in the operating system.
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Microsoft issues patches for holes that could allow remote attackers to gain control of your PC.
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Security researchers have discovered another vulnerability in Windows XP Service Pack 2, but it doesn&#39;t appear to be an immediate threat.
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A fix for a serious flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been released early to combat escalating attacks.
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A Chinese security group has released sample code to exploit two new unpatched flaws in Microsoft Windows. The advisory comes in the week before Christmas, a time when many companies and home users are least prepared to deal with the problems.
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HACKERS ARE swapping information online about the latest hole in Windows in the hope of getting a good exploit onto other people&#39;s computers before they install SP2.
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A serious problem with Windows Shell that is already targeted by exploit code is expected to be tackled by one of the 11 updates.
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A vulnerability in OpenOffice could allow attackers to remotely execute code on computers running Windows, Linux or Mac OS.
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Windows security holes patched; tool to rid PCs of malicious software now available.
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An exploit attacking the most recent Windows bug is circulating on Usenet, security experts said Tuesday, that crashes machines, yet another indicator that attackers will chase the vulnerability until they&#39;ve launched mass mailing-style worm-based attacks
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Microsoft fixes a critical flaw in the Windows operating system that could be used by criminals to create a self-copying PC worm attack.
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ released its February set of security updates Tuesday, including critical fixes for bugs in Office and the scanning engine used by the company's security products. The security software flaw is of particular concern because it could, in theory, be very easily exploited by an attacker to run unauthorized software on a victim's PC. The bug has to do with the way that Microsoft's Malware Protection Engine, used by Windows Live One Care and Windows Defender, processes PDF files. Windows Defender is available for free and ships with Microsoft's Vista operating system. "An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by constructing a specially crafted PDF File that could potentially allow remote code execution when the target computer system receives, and the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine scans, the PDF file," Microsoft said in its bulletin on the patch. This engine is also used by Microsoft's Antigen and Windows Forefront Security products, meaning that Exchange servers running these products could also be compromised. Although there is not yet any known attack that exploits this flaw, it could become a serious problem for Windows users running Microsoft's security products, according to Amol Sarwate, vulnerability lab manager at Qualys. "These attacks are very difficult to avoid," he said. "These products run automatically in the background." Symantec rated this scanning engine flaw the most critical of the vulnerabilities patched on Tuesday. Microsoft actually released the patch for this flaw on Jan. 26, although it did not notify customers of this bug until Tuesday's bulletin, said Mark Griesi, a security program manager with the company's Trustworthy Computing group. Griesi said that there was no particular reason why Microsoft declined to notify customers of the update. But the fact that this was Microsoft's first security product patch since implementing its monthly system apparently contributed to the decision. "It was one of those first-time situations: 'Should we say something now or should we just wait,'" he said. "This time we decided to wait. We won't do it again." In total, six of Microsoft's 12 updates are rated as "critical," the other six have the less-serious rating of "important." Among the patches is a widely anticipated update for Microsoft Word , which fixes six bugs in Microsoft's word processing software. Hackers had been exploiting a number of these bugs in very targeted attacks over the past few months. The updates fix 20 bugs in total, including all four of the Word flaws that hackers had been exploiting, Griesi said. Other critical patches fix bugs in the ActiveX HTML Help control and Microsoft Data Access Components, both used by Windows, as well as flaws in Office and Internet Explorer.
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(InfoWorld) - There was a little surprise buried inÂ Microsoft's monthly security bulletins Tuesday. It turns out that Microsoft had quietly slipped out one of the February fixes just days before its Jan. 30 Vista launch. The fix was for a bug in Microsoft's Malware Protection Engine, used by products like Windows Defender, OneCare, and Antigen to scan for malware. Microsoft had discovered that the engine could possibly be tricked into running unauthorized code if it scanned a specially crafted PDF file. Nobody has actually launched such an attack, but since these products are always automatically scanning for malware in the background, the vulnerability could have led to some pretty nasty exploits. Still, it's strange that Microsoft waited so long to notify its customers of the patch. It's rare for Microsoft to release one of these out-of-cycle updates, but since it adoptedÂ its monthly patch process back in October 2003, it generally lets people know about them as soon as they're released. Microsoft's Mark Griesi told me that the company decided to send out the malware engine fix as soon as it was ready on January 26 and that this kind of quick fix is standard practice with most security software. But he said there was no particular reason why the company decided to wait until February 13 to tell people about it. Microsoft just hasn't been in the position of having to patch its security software since rolling out the monthly patch process, he added. "It was one of those first-time situations: 'Should we say something now or should we just wait,'" he told me. "This time we decided to wait. We won't do it again." From a PR perspective, it wasn't a bad move. Microsoft has touted Defender as one of the top three Vista security features. It wouldn't have been much fun to be talking about a major security flaw in the product just days before the Vista launch, would it?
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The giant has released a patch so that Windows doesn&#39;t let in hackers when it handles JPEG graphics formats. The flaw means that attackers can create an image file that will automatically run dodgy code, dump