Hackers Jump On Newest IE7 Bug

CWmike writes "Attackers are already exploiting a bug in Internet Explorer 7 that Microsoft patched just last week, security researchers warned today. Although the attacks are currently in 'very, very small numbers,' they may be just the forerunner of a larger campaign, said Trend Micro's Jamz Yaneza. 'I see this as a proof-of-concept,' said Yaneza, who noted that the exploit's payload is extremely straightforward and explained that there has been no attempt to mask it by, say, planting a root kit on the victimized PC at the same time. 'I wouldn't be surprised to see this [exploit] show up in one of those Chinese exploit kits,' he added. The new attack code, which Trend Micro dubbed 'XML_Dloadr.a,' arrives in a spam message as a malicious file masquerading as a Microsoft Word document."

Comments

Re:Hopefully attacks like this won't be as prevole

[the_humeister]

And then the exploits will occur with the browser that most people are using. Face it: there are bugs in every piece of software out there, and it's just a matter of time before someone finds and exploits them.

Re:Hopefully attacks like this won't be as prevole

[Anonymous Coward]

The new attack code, which Trend Micro dubbed "XML_Dloadr.a," arrives in a spam message as a malicious file masquerading as a Microsoft Word document. If the fake document is opened, the exploit hijacks PCs that have not been patched...

Running Chrome or Firefox won't stop idiots from opening strange attachments.

Re:Hopefully attacks like this won't be as prevole

[peterbye]

That will be true if all those people running windows using administrator accounts move over to running linux as root. Those running linux properly will still be pretty much unaffected.