Microsoft Warns Users of 'Zero Day' Security Issue

[JMcEntegart]

Microsoft this week took to its Security Response Center blog to warn users about a vulnerability that the Redmond-based company has yet to patch.

Microsoft Warns Users of 'Zero Day' Security Issue : Read more

 

[crom]

Yet another example of the many reasons to never use Internet Explorer.

 

[Shadow703793]

Ummm... OK. I live off of FireFox lol. Anyways, wish they would get rid of ActiveX permanently. They SHOULD do that in Windows 8, esp. since IE is going downhill and ActiveX is part of that problem.

 

[offkey_toms]

A popular misconception concerning the firefox add-on (based on NPAPI technology) is that a add-on is somehow inherently safer than an ActiveX control. Both run native machine instructions with the same privileges as the host process. Thus a malicious plugin can do as much damage as a malicious ActiveX control.

People, wake up...

 

[Shadow703793]

[citation][nom]offkey_toms[/nom]A popular misconception concerning the firefox add-on (based on NPAPI technology) is that a add-on is somehow inherently safer than an ActiveX control. Both run native machine instructions with the same privileges as the host process. Thus a malicious plugin can do as much damage as a malicious ActiveX control.People, wake up...[/citation]
True, but the other parts of the IE structure allows for the easier installation of ActiveX plug-ins without the users knowledge. And has a greater ability to do damage to a system.

Also NPAPI runs just on the browser itself while ActiveX can run as part of other programs, esp. VB, thus making ActiveX a bigger security hole than NPAPI ad-ons which is restricted mainly to the browser.

 

[tmike]

The small trickle of updates to Windows are far easier to swallow than the daily stream of notices I receive about new defects and vulnerabilities in Debian.

 

[jhansonxi]

[citation][nom]tmike[/nom]The small trickle of updates to Windows are far easier to swallow than the daily stream of notices I receive about new defects and vulnerabilities in Debian.[/citation]Most Linux distro package managers update every application installed, not just the OS and web browser. The distros are very paranoid and proactive (although probably not as much as OpenBSD).

 

[SAL-e]

"In the meantime, our investigation has shown that there are no by-design uses for this ActiveX Control within Internet Explorer. ...

Why the hell if the ActiveX Control has no useful use, can be run remotely and can not be uninstalled?

 

[Guest]

SAL-e: It was probably a backdoor in the first place... Or else Microsoft is utterly incompetent, you choose...

 

[dafin0]

[citation][nom]crom[/nom]Yet another example of the many reasons to never use Internet Explorer.[/citation]

no yet another reason to update you software,no one should be using IE6/7 anymore so if anything happens to them then its there own fault
(btw) the article doesn't seam to state this only effects IE6/7

 

[Core2uu]

More than your punishment for using IE, it's your punishment for continuing to use a decade old OS.

Cmon people, let's move, the turn of the century was almost 10 years ago.

 

[hemelskonijn]

Fun part though would be that this security problem was already in the focus but a few weeks back when they first wrote about it they limited the warning to use in combination with quicktime.
Back then loads of people replied that it was Apple who made buggy software and i already posted that the leak was possible to exploit in other ways and thus again making it a microsoft problem i got at least 6 thumbs down for that in under 4 hours.

Now here it is again the same activeX leak but this time nothing about quicktime lets see who shall we blame this time ?

 

[neiroatopelcc]

all the anti IE stuff aside, does anyone actually implement any of those workarounds? I'm 'in charge' of some 400 systems + about 20 servers or so, and I've NEVER implemented a single of the workarounds.

 

[Platypus]

[citation][nom]hemelskonijn[/nom]Back then loads of people replied that it was Apple who made buggy software and i already posted that the leak was possible to exploit in other ways and thus again making it a microsoft problem i got at least 6 thumbs down for that in under 4 hours.[/citation]
It sounds like you take those 'thumb downs' rather personally.

 

[hemelskonijn]

Platypus:

Not really though it shows how intelligent the average Tom's hardware reader is.

 

[bunz_of_steel]

I think terrorizors and aliens use IE to brainwash us into thinking M$ is the only choice.....yeh and the MAF-RIAA are really nice ppl.

 

[fuser]

You'd have to live in a cave to think that MS is the only option. My grandmother was talking about firefox the other day.

 

[crom]

[citation][nom]dafin0[/nom]no yet another reason to update you software,no one should be using IE6/7 anymore so if anything happens to them then its there own fault(btw) the article doesn't seam to state this only effects IE6/7[/citation]

This hits all versions of IE on XP, including 8. It may affect Vista as well, hence their warning. Forgetting the security issue at the moment, IE doesn't even comply to standards, so websites will look wrong in it. Its just a badly designed web browser that is as big as security hole as Quicktime is for a Mac.