Microsoft Security Advisory (2458511)

[vtol]

Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/2458511.mspx

[funkydude]

Haven't seen one of these in a while, but again it's mitigated by DEP and protected mode.


Data Execution Prevention (DEP) helps protect against attacks that result in code execution and is enabled by default in Internet Explorer 8 on the following Windows operating systems: Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, and Windows 7.

Protected Mode in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems helps to limit the impact of the vulnerability as an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability would have very limited rights on the system. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability on Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8 could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less affected than users who operate with administrative user rights.

In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a Web site that contains a Web page that is used to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker’s Web site.

[ronjor]

-{ Quote: "Hi everyone,

Today we released Security Advisory 2458511 to address a new vulnerability that could impact Internet Explorer users if they visit a website hosting malicious code. As of now, the impact of this vulnerability is extremely limited and we are not aware of any affected customers. The exploit code was discovered on a single website which is no longer hosting the malicious code. When a website is discovered to host malicious software, we work through legal channels to take the site down. These kinds of attempts to exploit systems and the people using technology are the activity of criminals. Microsoft takes this very seriously and where possible, we will take legal action against those responsible.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta users are not affected by this issue and any customers who wish to upgrade their browser to this version can do so freely at www.microsoft.com/ie. Impacted versions include Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, although our ongoing investigation confirms that default installations of Internet Explorer 8 are unlikely to be exploited by this issue. This is due to the defense in depth protections offered from Data Execution Prevention (DEP), which is enabled by default in Internet Explorer 8 on all supported Windows platforms. For supported versions of Windows running earlier versions of Internet Explorer, please review this blog post from our Security Research & Defense team describing how to enable DEP." }-http://blogs.technet.com/b/msrc/archive/2010/11/02/microsoft-releases-security-advisory-2458511.aspx

[MrBrian]

DEP, EMET protect against attacks on the latest Internet Explorer vulnerability (http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2010/11/03/dep-emet-protect-against-attacks-on-the-latest-internet-explorer-vulnerability.aspx)

[JRViejo]

-{ Quote: "An exploit of an unpatched Internet Explorer vulnerability has been added to a popular crimeware kit, a move that will probably push Microsoft to fix the flaw with an emergency update, a security researcher said Sunday.

Meanwhile, a prominent vulnerability expert has sided with Microsoft, which has said the bug will be difficult to exploit in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8 ), the most popular version of the company's browser." }-
Danger to IE users climbs as hacker kit adds exploit (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9195380/Danger_to_IE_users_climbs_as_hacker_kit_adds_exploit) by Gregg Keizer.