12.15.08

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Microsoft™ Windows™ Zombies®

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 5:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Do something good for yourself: spread GNU/Linux

This month was a particularly bad one for Microsoft security, but it’s getting worse. It’s easy to see why Microsoft has become so paranoid when it comes to perceptions of Windows security (insecurity). It even twists the arms of journalists now.

There are several important reports that we have not included here yet, so here is a quick rundown.

Internet Explorer Under Fire

This is pretty serious. Here is coverage of the key point:

1. IE zero day bites broader group of users

Secunia goes on to revise what it says is the cause of the vulnerability. Contrary to earlier reports that pinned the blame on the way IE handles certain types of data that use the extensible markup language, or XML, format, the true cause is faulty data binding, meaning exploit code need not use XML.

2. Microsoft: IE5, IE6 Also Affected by Browser Vulnerability

An unpatched vulnerability found in Internet Explorer 7 also affects older versions of the browser as well as the latest beta version, Microsoft warned Thursday.

The new information widens the pool of users who could be at risk of inadvertently becoming infected with malicious software installed on their PC, as Microsoft does not yet have a patch ready.

In an advisory updated on Thursday, Microsoft confirmed that IE 5.01 with Service Pack 4, IE6 with and without Service Pack 1 and IE8 Beta 2 on all versions of the Windows operating system are potentially vulnerable.

3. All Internet Explorer Versions Have Hole?

The unpatched bug in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that hackers are now exploiting also exists in older versions of the browser, including the still-widely-used IE6, Microsoft Corp. said.

Friday, a Danish security researcher added that Microsoft’s original countermeasure advice was insufficient, and recommended users take one of the new steps the company spelled out.

There is an early fix for this flaw. It’s called Mozilla Firefox, but there are other fixes available.

Having Only Oneself to Blame

Would it be considered acceptable that Microsoft is patching a known security hole 7 years late?

Microsoft recently released two new patches, one of which fixes a security hole that the company has been trying to plug since 2001.

It was only days ago that Microsoft patched no less than six “critical” flaws.

Palo Alto Networks today announced that its Threat Research Team discovered one of the six critical vulnerabilities communicated in Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday security bulletin this week.

The Future

With so many holes that are most severe, no wonder virtually every Windows box is open to hijackers and almost half of them are already hijacked. The press is rightly preoccupied with stories about the global financial crisis, but one security vendor believes that cybercrime has become an even greater problem.

You might have noticed that the economy is in the tank. Something about this “credit crunch” and “recession” and whatnot. But the amount of attention governments around the world are paying to these issues is giving cybercrime a foothold, according to a new study from a — yep, you guessed it — security vendor…

As the economy declines, this is bound to get worse.

Desperate IT workers who have been laid off will go rogue in 2009, selling corporate data and using crimeware, reports have predicted.

The credit crunch will drive some IT workers to use their skills to steal credit-card data using phishing attacks, and abuse their privileged corporate computer access to sell off valuable financial and intellectual information, forensic experts have warned.

How did we get here and how will we get out of this? Download a fix now. █