01.22.10
Microsoft Security Negligence Confirmed: Critical Internet Explorer Flaw Known and Ignored for 4 Months
Summary: The newest facts show that Microsoft knowingly refused to fix flaws that led to tremendous damage; lies from Microsoft (about its competition) are refuted as well
IN MANY RECENT posts about Internet Explorer [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], we have pointed out Microsoft’s pattern of negligence [1, 2, 3], which always passes costs (damages) to the public. Microsoft should probably be sued for it, rather than make money from it. Microsoft — like Goldman Sachs — is making a lot of money out of a crisis caused by its own risk-taking.
Here are some self-explanatory news headlines:
• Microsoft lies to your face about browser security
Microsoft’s Head of Security and Privacy in the UK has told TechRadar that people who jump ship from Internet Explorer after the recent spate of bad headlines risk ending up on a less secure browser. With France and Germany both advising a move away from Internet Explorer, things are far from rosy for Microsoft’s browser [...yet] Microsoft’s UK security chief Cliff Evans insists that a non-Microsoft browser is the worse option. “The net effect of switching [from IE] is that you will end up on less secure browser,” insisted Evans. “The risk [over this specific] exploit is minimal compared to Firefox or other competing browsers… you will be opening yourself up to security issues.
Let’s fight FUD with facts…
Vulnerability Report: Mozilla Firefox 3.5.x
Unpatched: 0Vulnerability Report: Google Chrome 3.x
Unpatched: 0Vulnerability Report: Opera 10.x
Unpatched: 0Vulnerability Report: Apple Safari 4.x
Unpatched: 0Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x
Unpatched: 24
Most Critical Unpatched: Extremely criticalVulnerability Report: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x
Unpatched: 11
Most Critical Unpatched: Extremely criticalVulnerability Report: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.x
Unpatched: 4
Most Critical Unpatched: Extremely criticalMy recommendation if you use Windows: make sure the version of IE that’s installed (because you can’t uninstall it!) is the latest/least vulnerable (IE8) and then install at least one of the non-IE browsers listed (personally I always recommend Firefox
and then use THAT. Of course, you could always switch to a Mac or Linux…
• Microsoft patches IE, admits it knew of bug last August
As Microsoft patched the Internet Explorer (IE) vulnerability that was used to break into Google’s network, it also acknowledged that it had known of the bug since August 2009, when an Israeli security company reported the flaw.
• MS knew of Aurora exploit four months before Google attacks
Microsoft first knew of the bug used in the infamous Operation Aurora IE exploits as long ago as August, four months before the vulnerability was used in exploits against Google and other hi-tech firms in December, it has emerged.
Redmond’s security gnomes finally got around to patching the exploit on Thursday. the hack attacks against Google et al targeted IE 6, a browser first released in 2001. Exploits involved tricking users of vulnerable browsers into visiting booby-trapped websites. These sites downloaded the Hydraq backdoor Trojan and other malicious components onto compromised PCs.
[...]
A quick search of Secunia’s database, via its PSI patching tool, reveals a problem with an unpatched ActiveX control that looks just as bad, for example.
• Emergency IE patch goes live as exploits proliferate
Microsoft released an emergency security update for all versions of Internet Explorer on Thursday as attacks exploiting a critical vulnerability in the widely used browser spread to hundreds of websites.
[...]
While some of the sites hosting the attacks were free services that had been co-opted, others appeared to be domains of legitimate companies that had been compromised.
[...]
In an admission that’s sure to spark criticism, Microsoft said it learned of the critical bug more than three months ago.
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The unscheduled bulletin fixes a memory corruption flaw in most versions of the widely used browser that allows attackers to execute malicious code simply by luring victims to a booby-trapped website. It fixes seven other privately reported vulnerabilities, some of which also made remote code execution possible, that Microsoft had been planning to issue next month during its next regularly scheduled patch release.
[...]
Systems compromised by the sites reported by Symantec were infected with a backdoor that collected registry settings and other system information and sent it to an email address that was under the control of attackers. That email address has since been disabled, Talbot said.
• Widespread Attacks Exploit Newly Patched IE Bug
The first widespread attack to leverage a recently patched flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser has surfaced.
Starting late Wednesday, researchers at antivirus vendor Symantec’s Security Response group began spotting dozens of Web sites that contain the Internet Explorer attack, which works reliably on the IE 6 browser, running on Windows XP. The attack installs a Trojan horse program that is able to bypass some security products and then give hackers access to the system, said Joshua Talbot, a security intelligence manager with Symantec.
Once it has infected a PC, the Trojan sends a notification e-mail to the attackers, using a U.S.-based, free e-mail service that Symantec declined to name.
• Make the right browser update: Firefox 3.6
• Neolithic Windows security hole alive and well in Windows 7
One of the reasons I’ve never liked Windows is that it was never made to deal with the security problems of working in a networked, multi-user world. As a direct result, Windows has been fundamentally insecure for more than a decade. Even so, I was surprised to find that there’s a 17-year old security hole that’s been in Windows since NT and it’s still present today in Windows 7.
Wow. Even I’m shocked by this latest example of just how rotten Windows security is. It just reminds me again though that while Microsoft keeps adding features and attempting to patch its way out of security problems to Windows, Windows’ foundation is built on sand and not on the stone of good, solid design.
[...]
Be that as it may, the code’s still in there. An attacker can trigger the vulnerability through a variety of means. The end-result is, surprise, another Windows machine that’s totally owned by the attacker. Once in charge, they can vacuum down your files, install malware, and all the other usual tricks.
Vista 7 was never secure to begin with. See the examples below. █
- Cybercrime Rises and Vista 7 is Already Open to Hijackers
- Vista 7: Broken Apart Before Arrival
- Department of Homeland Security ‘Poisoned’ by Microsoft; Vista 7 is Open to Hijackers Again
- Vista 7 Security “Cannot be Fixed. It’s a Design Problem.”
- Why Vista 7 Could be the Least Secure Operating System Ever
- Journalists Suggest Banning Windows, Maybe Suing Microsoft Over DDoS Attacks
- Vista 7 Vulnerable to Latest “Critical” Flaws
- Vista 7 Seemingly Affected by Several More “Critical” Flaws This Month
- Reason #1 to Avoid Vista 7: Insecurity
- Vista 7 Left Hijackable Again (Almost a Monthly Recurrence)
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uberVU - social comments said,
January 22, 2010 at 9:26 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by schestowitz: Critical Internet Explorer Flaw Known and Ignored for 4 Months http://boycottnovell.com/2010/01/22/refusing-to-fix-ie-flaws/…