Information Security News mailing list archives
Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism
From: InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 03:02:51 -0600 (CST)
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/1209msflaw.html By Joris Evers IDG News Service 12/09/02 Microsoft raised the risk rating on a security flaw in Internet Explorer (IE) to "critical" after criticism prompted it to reexamine the issue, the company said Friday. Earlier last week, Microsoft issued a patch to fix a flaw in IE 5.5 and IE 6.0 that it said only posed a "moderate" risk to users. Security experts, however, said the issue should be rated critical as it could be exploited to take over a user's machine. Microsoft reinvestigated the issue and discovered a new exploit scenario that indeed allows an attacker to gain control over a vulnerable system, Steve Lipner, director of security assurance for Microsoft said in an e-mail response to questions. "The newly discovered exploit scenario could allow a malicious user to run code on a user's computer via a specially crafted Web site or e-mail message, thus warranting a severity rating of critical," Lipner said. Microsoft has revised its security bulletin. The flaw lies in a feature meant to set up security boundaries between Web browser windows and the local system. This "external object caching" vulnerability was first made public in late October by Israeli security company GreyMagic Software. An attacker could exploit the flaw by luring a user to a specially coded Web page or sending that page via HTML e-mail, Microsoft said. The company urges users to apply the patch, part of a super patch that includes all previous IE 5.5 and IE 6.0 fixes, as soon as possible. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
Current thread:
- Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism InfoSec News (Dec 10)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism InfoSec News (Dec 11)
- RE: Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism InfoSec News (Dec 13)
- Re: Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism InfoSec News (Dec 17)
- RE: Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism InfoSec News (Dec 17)
- RE: Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism InfoSec News (Dec 18)
- Re: Microsoft upgrades IE flaw to critical after criticism InfoSec News (Dec 20)