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Windows Vulnerability in Animated Cursor Handling
MoreDruid writes "Secunia reports a vulnerability in Windows Animated Cursor Handling. According to the linked article, the rating is "extremely critical". Microsoft has put up their own advisory on the subject, confirming this is a vulnerability that affects Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. The exploit has already been used in the wild. From the Secunia page: The vulnerability is caused due to an unspecified error in the handling of animated cursors and can e.g. be exploited by tricking a user into visiting a malicious website using Internet Explorer or opening a malicious e-mail message. Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code."
Surprise, Windows Listed as Most Secure OS ... just don't move the mouse.
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/User:Steve_Ballmer
>Solution: Do not browse untrusted sites or view untrusted e-mails.
Nice, so basically I'm not supposed to read any emails from people I don't know. Sounds like a viable solution.
MABASPLOOM!
...install an animated cursor in the first place? Okay, besides the CEO.
Our security expert, Jackson M., just tolds us:
" So, ANI are you ok ? Are you ok ANI ?
You've been hit by... you've been hit by... a smooth criminal ! "
-- Rastignac was here.
A workaround for this is to install some quality cursors.
I use the comet cursor package that installed itself automatically when I browsed the web.
It has some great cursors and loads of other features that make using Windows far more entertaining.
I have not been able to remove or alter the comet cursor package since it installed itself, so I think it will protect very well against other cursors getting installed on my computer.
Say hello to my little sig.
Even if you're a programmer, you're still out of your league on this one. Only a plumber could understand the series of tubes that make up the Internet.
[Cancel] or [Allow]?
Successful.
I though Vista was supposed to be the most secure OS ever.
Nope. I watched their lips and every time they said, "Vista will be the most secure Microsoft operating system ever."
I think this was carefully worded by them so they could say it with an honest face.
Microsoft's advisory says that IE7 runs in protected mode in Vista, thus it is "protected from currently known web based attacks" and the exploit can only crash the browser not execute arbitrary code. It's in the "Mitigating Factors for Animated Cursor Vulnerability" section.
"In Protected Mode, Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista cannot modify user or system files and settings without user consent." -- From the Windows Vista: Features Explained site.
Unless of course the user has been driven insane by all the "Cancel or Allow?" questions and would readily click "Allow" even in a dialog box asking, "Your computer would like to strangle you with its power cord. Cancel or Allow?"
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The most secure computer is turned off, unplugged, buried a mile deep in an asteroid somewhere in the Kuiper belt, ringed by defensive lasers, orbited by a swarm of nuclear smart mines and guarded by a whole company of battlemechs.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton