Attack code posted for Microsoft Works bug
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The proof-of-concept code that targets a bug in Microsoft Works' file converter software isn't likely to become a major attack vector, but its ease of use is not to be denied.
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Attack uses CAST statements in its SQL injected script
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Trojan hides under patch update Do not be tempted into opening an email with the subject line: "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-0065" because it is no such thing.â¦
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Microsoft Corp has released a patch for its latest âcriticalâ rated security flaw affecting its Windows, Office and developer tools software programmes.
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The new flaw is unrelated to the help-file flaws discovered by a Chinese security company last week. Microsoft took the Chinese security group to task for disclosing the vulnerability without giving the company a chance to develop a fix.
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InfoWorld - Just one day afterÂ Microsoft issued a massive set of security patches for its software, hackers have begun posting code showing how to exploit one of the flaws.
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A bug in Microsoft&#39;s Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 and Proxy Server 2 can let hackers spoof Web content, such as a trusted site, with their own fake content, the Redmond
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(InfoWorld) - It took less than 24 hours for attackers to crank out proof-of-concept code targeting the one critical vulnerability disclosed -- and patched -- Tuesday morning by Microsoft, security researchers warned. Early Wednesday, analysts with Symantec's DeepSight threat network alerted customers of JavaScript exploit code for the critical vulnerability in Windows 2000 that was revealed in Microsoft's monthly patch cycle. The proof-of-concept was posted to the Internet by someone with a Brazilian e-mail address. An hour-and-a-half later, Symantec updated its alert to say that additional exploit code was also available to users of Immunity's popular CANVAS penetration testing ("pentest") software. To call attention to the added danger, Symantec also raised the vulnerability's threat score from Tuesday's initial 7.1 (out of a possible 10) to 8.5 today. The Windows 2000 bug -- the only one rated critical of the four patched Tuesday -- is in Windows Agent, the component that drives the operating system's interactive animated help characters. The best known, and in its time, most detested, character was dubbed "Clippy," a.k.a. the Office Assistant, a bouncy paperclip designed to answer users' questions about Microsoft Office. The developer disabled Clippy by default as of Office XP and put it to rest when Office 2007 debuted earlier this year. The JavaScript-based exploit fits nicely with analysis made yesterday by Tom Cross, a researcher with IBM Internet Security Systems' X-Force. The vulnerability, said Cross Tuesday, is in the Agent ActiveX control, which are typically exploited by duping users into visiting Web sites where malicious script code has been planted, and "attackers will use a pretty common attack vector," he said Tuesday. The quick appearance today of proof-of-concept also matches his initial impression. "This uses a pretty common attack vector, and it fits the profile of a lot of bugs." Symantec advised users who were unable to immediately apply the patch to disable their browser's script-handling capabilities. "A successful exploit requires the execution of active content," its advisory said. "To mitigate against this and other latent vulnerabilities, disable support for active content in the browser." VeriSign iDefense, which was credited by Microsoft for reporting the bug, also posted an advisory today; in it, the security vendor spells out how to set the "kill bit" in the Windows registry to disable the Agent ActiveX control. Microsoft has posted its technical write-up of the Agent vulnerability in the MS07-051 security bulletin. Tuesday's update is also a replacement for an earlier April fix of Agent, an indication that the company's developers didn't find all the bugs in the component five months ago. Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft's Office software is under attack again, this time with anÂ unpatched flaw in the Windows 2000 version of Office 2000 being usedÂ by hackersÂ to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer. Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that the bug exists, but it would not say when it plans to fix the problem. The critical vulnerability wasÂ first reported by SymantecÂ to users of its DeepSight threat notification service. Attackers are exploiting the flaw by sending malicious Word documents to victims, Symantec said. When these documents are opened, Word is tricked into installing malicious software on the PC. Symantec is calling this malware Trojan.MDropper. Trojan.MDropper installs malicious software on the computer, which in turn installs another Trojan horse program "which turns out to be new variant of Backdoor.Femo," Symantec said in an Web posting. Symantec testers had not been able to exploit the problem on more up-to-date versions of Office or Windows. On Tuesday Microsoft said that the bug was confined to Microsoft Word 2000. Microsoft is investigating the issue and may issue a patch once that investigation is completed, according to the company's public relations agency. Microsoft has spent a lot of timeÂ investigating and patching Office applications this year. Over the past few months there have been several reports concerning very targeted attacks, similar to this latest Office issue. Microsoft's last few security updatesÂ have been filled with patches for Office flaws, many of which had already been used in attacks.
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Microsoft is working to patch a security flaw in its word-processing software that is being used in targeted cyberattacks.
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(InfoWorld) - Hackers have discovered a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer, and they've released code that could be used to attack users of Microsoft Corp.'s popular browser. The vulnerability is similar to a bug thatÂ Microsoft patched last month in a multimedia component of Internet Explorer, according to Vincent Hwang, a group product manager with Symantec's Security Response team. Though a sample exploit of the vulnerability was posted Wednesday by hackers on the xsec.org Web site, Symantec has yet to see the code used in any attacks, according to Hwang. To take advantage of the exploit code, attackers would first need to trick users into viewing a maliciously encoded Web page, but they could then run unauthorized code on a victim's computer. It is unclear right now which versions of Windows and Internet Explorer are affected by the vulnerability. Researchers at Secunia said they were able to create a "fully working" exploit for the latest version of Windows XP running Internet Explorer 6. Windows 2000 users are also vulnerable, Secunia said. Microsoft security researchers were unavailable to comment on the issue, but a spokesman for the company's public relations agency said that the matter was under investigation. Symantec calls the bug "critical," andÂ Secunia rates the issue as "highly critical," its most severe rating. The xsec.org hackers referred to their code as a 0day, meaning an exploit for a previously undisclosed vulnerability. But one well-known hacker said the flaw was not difficult to find using publicly available security tools, such as the AxMan ActiveX fuzzing software. "Calling it 0day is a stretch," said HD Moore, the head of the Metasploit project, via e-mail. Moore wrote an automated ActiveX testing tool called AxMan that uncovered a handful of IE bugs, including the one exploited by on xsec.org. Although Moore recently launched a project called the Month of Browser Bugs, in which he disclosed a new browser vulnerability every day for the month of July, he said he had refrained from disclosing this particular vulnerability. "This is one of the many exploitable bugs that can be discovered using AxMan and one of the few that I didn't include in Month of Browser bugs due to the ease of exploitation," he said. "I still have three or four left in IE that have similar impact." This is the second unpatched flaw that Microsoft is looking at patching right now. Earlier this month, attackers began exploiting a vulnerability in the company's Word software.
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Code that claims to partially exploit a weakness in Microsoft software&#39;s handling of image files has been published on the Internet.
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Code that exploits a serious, yet-to-be-patched hole in Microsoft's Web browser has been posted on the Net.
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Code that exploits a "critical" Windows flaw has been posted on the Net, opening the door for a worm to be created.
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How a seemingly simply Microsoft bug betrayed its author's disdain for a wide range of secure coding principles.
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A toolkit designed to exploit a recently-disclosed Microsoft JPEG vulnerability has been released onto the net. The toolkit (screen shot from AV firm F-Secure here) makes it trivially easy for maliciously-minded
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Just one day after&#160;Microsoft issued a massive set of security patches for its software, hackers have begun posting code showing how to exploit one of the flaws.The proof-of-concept code, posted Wednesday to the Milw0rm Web site, exploits a bug in the Microsoft Works file converter software that is part of Office 2003 and can be used to run unauthorized software on a victim&#39;s computer.The flaw also affects Works 8 and Works Suite 2005. To fall prey to the attack, a victim would first have to open a malicious Works attachment.Hackers have uncovered many of these file-format bugs in recent years, and they are generally not used in widespread attacks. In fact, security vendor Symantec predicts that we&#39;ll see fewer of these attacks in the months ahead as online criminals increasingly rely on browser bugs to do their dirty work.&quot;The bad guys, they&#39;re looking for different ways to trick people,&quot; said Wayne Periman, director of development with Symantec Security Response. &quot;The popular method of choice is to exploit plugins in browsers right now.&quot;Still, Periman expects criminals to try out this latest attack code. &quot;It&#39;s so simple,&quot; he said. &quot;All you have to do is get someone to open the document.&quot;As of Wednesday, Symantec had not seen any signs of attackers taking advantage of any of the flaws that Microsoft fixed this week.The software vendor released 11 sets of patches this week, fixing 17 flaws in its products, but this is the first exploit code to pop up following Tuesday&#39;s updates. A second program exploiting one of these vulnerabilities -- this one in an ActiveX control used by the Visual FoxPro database -- was posted to Milw0rm in September, months before Microsoft patched the issue.