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IE Flaw Gives Hackers Access To User Files

Posted by timothy on from the open-file-my-documents dept.

snydeq writes "Microsoft warned that a flaw in IE gives attackers access to files stored on a PC under certain conditions. 'Our investigation so far has shown that if a user is using a version of Internet Explorer that is not running in Protected Mode an attacker may be able to access files with an already known filename and location,' Microsoft said in a security advisory. The vulnerability requires that an attacker knows the name of the file they want to access, according to the company."

1 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WHY THE FUCK DO PEOPLE STILL USE IE? by mlts · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Devil's advocate: The parent AC post stated one of the biggest reasons why IE is prevalent. The other is that IE is part of the OS. Because of this, it is already vetted by the legal eagles, the licensing bean counters, and the other muckety-mucks you find in larger companies. There is no need to get IE approved as part of an official corporate image, because it is present, like it or not. So, companies tend to use it because it is there, it has decent security on Vista and Windows 7 (especially combined with DEP), and can be controlled by GPOs.