A zero-day exploit affecting Microsoft XML Core Services has been circulating online, and poses a remote code execution threat to Windows XP, 2003, and 2000 operating systems.
"The Untamed Exploit"
The extremely critical flaw reported by security advisory firm Secunia poses a threat to users of Internet Explorer. By visiting a website with a maliciously crafted web page to exploit the vulnerability, a person's PC could be subject to the execution of arbitrary code.
Secunia provided a summary of the problem in their advisory:
The vulnerability is caused due to an unspecified error in the XMLHTTP 4.0 ActiveX Control.
Microsoft has recommended various workarounds including setting the kill-bit for the affected ActiveX control (see the vendor's advisory for details).
Microsoft's advisory noted they are aware of "limited attacks" that attempt to exploit the flaw. They recommend a few workarounds, including the kill-bit setting.
That involves making changes in a system registry, something which most casual PC users may wish to avoid due to the potential for creating problems by inadvertently altering or deleting a registry key. Microsoft suggested other workarounds for the problem that can be made in Internet Explorer's security settings:
Configure Internet Explorer to prompt before running Active Scripting or disable Active Scripting in the Internet and Local intranet security zone.
Configure Internet Explorer to prompt before running ActiveX Controls or disable ActiveX Controls in the Internet and Local intranet security zone.
Set Internet and Local intranet security zone settings to "High" to prompt before running ActiveX Controls and Active Scripting in these zones.
Detailed instructions for each workaround may be found at the advisory page. Ben Richeson, posting at the Microsoft Security Response Center blog, noted they would provide updates on the advisory page when warranted.
Issues like these in Internet Explorer have contributed to the growth of non-Microsoft web browsers. Users of Opera or Firefox are not vulnerable to the problem, and have likewise been able to ignore a multitude of other IE issues over the years.
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