Posted on 12/15/2008 10:36:51 AM PST by GATOR NAVY
Microsoft warned Saturday of a "huge increase" in attacks exploiting a critical unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer (IE), and said some originated from hacked pornography sites.
Other researchers confirmed that attacks were increasingly coming from compromised Web sites.
Microsoft noted the upswing in attacks on the company's Malware Protection Center blog late Saturday. "The trend for now is going upwards," said researchers Ziv Mador and Tareq Saadecom on the blog. "We saw a huge increase in the number of reports today compared to yesterday."
Hackers have been exploiting a data binding bug in IE for more than a week , according to researchers who first noted in-the-wild attack code on Chinese servers . The vulnerability, which exists in all versions of the Microsoft browser, including IE5.01, IE6, IE7, and IE8 Beta 2, has so far been exploited only by attack code that targets IE7, the most widely used edition.
Mador and Saadecom said that attacks are increasingly being launched from legitimate Web sites. "Some legitimate Web sites were maliciously modified to include the exploits," the two said. A popular Taiwanese search engine and a Hong Kong-based pornography site were among the sites hacked, then set up to attack visitors running IE.
Researchers at Trend Micro also reported a big increase in hacked sites serving exploits aimed at the new IE bug. On Saturday, the security firm estimated that about 6,000 sites have been infected so far, noting that the count was "quickly increasing in number."
As in previous, large-scale attacks based on legitimate Web sites, this one involves hackers who execute SQL injection attacks to first compromise the site. In a SQL injection attack, hackers exploit vulnerabilities in Web applications that rely on a back-end database, which then gives them a way to add and run malicious code, usually rogue JavaScript, against any browser.
Microsoft acknowledged that attacks have become a significant problem. "Based on our stats, since the vulnerability has gone public, roughly 0.2 percent of users worldwide may have been exposed to Web sites ontaining exploits of this latest vulnerability," Mador and Saadecom said. "That percentage may seem low, however it still means that a significant number of users have been affected."
The move to legitimate, but hacked, sites is a change in tactics. As recently as Thursday, attacks were coming only from malicious sites, most of them in China. Even then, however, Microsoft had warned that hackers would probably expand the scope of their attacks by compromising valid sites.
In related news, Microsoft said it was working on a patch for IE, although it has still not said when it would issue the update. Some researchers expect the company to release a fix outside Microsoft's normal monthly schedule; the next security updates aren't due until Jan. 9, 2009. Microsoft also revised its security advisory for a third time Saturday, adding more information about the recommended actions users should take until a patch is available. The company has offered up a total of nine different workarounds for IE users, several of which require editing of the Windows registry, a chore most users assiduously avoid.
Possibly..
But that would seem to be a possible issue of being denied your right to choose any operating system you want and maybe a lawsuit against Microsoft as well..
Not sure.
Just guessing.
I went to Firefox over two years ago.
I used to run adaware every couple of days. I removed it a couple of months after I switched to firefox.
Haven’t had a problem since.
Firefox simply does not have tentacles into Windows like IE does. It can only be exploited by hackers to a point.
I still have IE on my computer for sites that only work with IE. I have not opened it in over a year though. Usually, if a company does not want to bother with making their site Firefox compatible, I don’t want to bother them with my business.
‘Course, for government stuff it is different.Those guys have guns, for crying out loud, and the authority to use ‘em!
If MS had the hardware mfrs put in something that would not allow the hardware to work with any other OS, that would be “maintaining an monopoly” and as such would be illegal, big time..........Having a monopoly isn’t illegal. Maintaining one is.........
I may move to Chrome in a couple of releases, if it gives me a reason.
So far I have no complaints with Firefox. It just works too well for me to even bother looking for anything else.
Firefox and Winamp are my favorite “freeware” software.
I use Firefox,and my O.S. is Vista. I have no problems. Contact Customer Services(Sony).
I keep IE on the HD just for that purpose. I never use it otherwise........
I hadn't heard that. Sounds like another reason to avoid Vista. So far I've not gone to Vista simply because I don't want to upgrade my hardware and what I have works fine with XP.
A tightened up Portable version of Firefox for almost everything else. I like the PortableApps.com modified version, which does not attach itself to the operating system. Along with the NoScript add on and some assorted media helpers. That setup is sort of bandwidth hungry because it has no cache (to enable use on small flashdrives), but it keeps the junk out of the registry and everything it does put onto the drive is controllable. It has trouble with sites that require execution of some external apps, but mostly ones I wouldn't want to run anyway.
Safari is very fast. I like it, but I don’t believe its Browser can effectively prevent malicious virus or spyware like Firefox, or even I.E. 8.
And with some of us older dudes it would help to know what the heck a Windows registry IS!
;^)
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