Fergie's Tech Blog

Microsoft probes report of IE flaw

Joris Evers writes in C|Net News:

A new flaw in Internet Explorer could be exploited to launch spoof-based attacks, or access and change data on vulnerable PCs, security experts have warned.

The problem lies in the way Microsoft has implemented a JavaScript component in its Web browser, security researcher Amit Klein wrote in a research document. Internet Explorer does not validate some data fields provided by a PC when the component, called XmlHttpRequest, is used, he wrote.

The vulnerability could be exploited with specially crafted code. An attacker could spoof a legitimate Web site, access data from the Web browser's cache or stage a so-called man-in-the-middle attack, which taps into traffic between a user and another Web site, according to Klein's write-up.

Fully-patched computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Internet Explorer 6.0 are vulnerable to this issue, security monitoring company Secunia said in an advisory. Secunia rates the problem as "moderately critical" but says people can avoid the risk by setting the security level in IE to "high."

posted by Fergie @ 9/28/2005 01:06:00 PM