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 Microsoft's Web Brower is defective again, rivals get boost on security advantage
July 2, 2004
A major security hole discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer last week makes rival web browsers such as Mozilla and Opera more attractive, since they are unaffected by the flaw discovered in Internet Explorer.
This time the flaw in software giant's web client lies in its propriety technologies, like ActiveX and JavaScript, which are notoriously weak on security.
To avoid falling prey to a concerted attack aiming to steal log-on information and passwords, some security experts advised Web surfers to either turn off some Internet Explorer (IE) features or switch to another browser as the best immediate fix. Unknown attackers who had taken control of several Web servers used the flaw last week to install a remote-access program, dubbed JS.Scob.Trojan, onto the PCs of visitors to those sites.
"I hope that Microsoft will come up with a patch soon," said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer for the Internet Storm Center, a site that monitors network threats. "Until they do, you basically have two choices: Disable JavaScript in Internet Explorer or install another browser."
The infection is acquired when a user visits an IIS-powered web site (IIS is the Microsoft web server software) that has the javascript trojan embedded in an image file. The user does not have to click on anything on the page or download, just simply visit the site. When the user gets infected, the process is not visible from Windows Task Manager. The javascipt captures user passwords for various sites and periodically uploads them to another location. Getting rid of the infection requires a complete reinstall of the operating system.
This exploit is related to a serious Internet Explorer vulnerability. All versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) for Windows are vulnerable to the exploit. Potential damage may result in system-level access to a computer and installation of programs on the hard disk.
As always, smart move will be to install a firewall capable of blocking IE's embedded scripting on websites you do not fully trust, and to increase the security level in Internet Explorer to "high" in order to restrict JavaScript, and, of course, obtaining a security patch from the software giant's Windows Update service.
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