NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, March 2010
Latest Internet Explorer Flaw
by Terrence O'Brien — Feb 5th 2010 at 1:30PM
Submitted by Patti McAlister - NWA-PCUG from AOL News.

Latest Internet Explorer Flaw Exposes Any File on Your PC

Internet Explorer is no stranger to security vulnerabilities, but a flaw revealed by Microsoft on Wednesday is one of the most stunning we've ever seen. The flaw affects IE6, IE7, and IE8 on Windows XP as well as IE7 and IE8 on Vista and Windows 7 if protected mode has been disabled (though protected mode is turned on by default).

The exploit would allow a hacker to access any file on your system by forcing IE to incorrectly render data from local files, exposing it to outside parties. The flaw, which is actually several smaller security holes combined in an ingenious way, would require tricking a victim into visiting a Web site through e-mail or IM, and then the attacker know the location and name of the file they'd wish to access. Unfortunately, many programs store sensitive data using a standardized structure that would be easy to find though guesswork.

http://www.switched.com/2010/02/05/latest-internet-explorer-flaw-exposes-any-file-on-your-pc/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl6|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.switched.com%2F2010%2F02%2F05%2Flatest-internet-explorer-flaw-exposes-any-file-on-your-pc%2F

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