Fergie's Tech Blog

Hackers Used IE Zero-Day, Not PDF, in China-Google Attacks

Gregg Keizer writes on ComputerWorld:

Hackers exploited an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser to break into some of the firms targeted in a widespread attack that compromised Google's and Adobe's corporate networks, McAfee said today.

According to Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee, the unpatched vulnerability in IE was the only exploit used to hack into several of the companies attacked in December and early January. McAfee did not collaborate with all victims of the attacks -- researchers from VeriSign iDefense have put the total at 33 -- but in all its cases the evidence was the same.

"There could be other forms of attacks," Alperovitch said, "but in all we investigated, it was the same kind of attack, and the same exploit of IE, which was the only exploit we have found in all the malware we have examined."

Alperovitch said that Microsoft would release additional information about the IE vulnerability in a later security advisory. Other sources, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not officially allowed to comment, said that Microsoft would release its advisory today.

posted by Fergie @ 1/14/2010 02:40:00 PM