zero-day

Microsoft released a record number of 13 bulletins for 34 vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday--and the first critical update for Windows 7--as well as fixes for zero-day flaws involving Server Message Block (SMB) and Internet Information Services (IIS).

The most severe of the three SMB flaws, which were first reported last month, could allow an attacker to take control of a computer remotely by sending a specially crafted SMB packet to a computer running the Server service. Exploit code for one of the SMB holes has been posted to the Web, Microsoft said.

Windows 7 is affected by two critical patches … Read more

A new zero-day exploit targeting Adobe Reader, as well as 9.1.3 and earlier versions of Adobe Systems' Acrobat, drops a backdoor onto computers using JavaScript, Trend Micro researchers warned on Friday.

Trend Micro identified the exploit as a Trojan horse dubbed "Troj_Pidief.Uo" in a blog post. It arrives as a PDF file containing JavaScript-based malware, "Js_Agent.Dt," and then drops a backdoor called "Bkdr_Protux.Bd."

The exploit affects Microsoft Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and Server 2003, according to Trend Micro.

The blog post provides technical details on how the … Read more

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is investigating reports of a zero-day vulnerability affecting Windows 7 and Vista.

The flaw in Windows 7 could allow an attack which would cause a critical system error, or "blue screen of death," according to researcher Laurent Gaffie.

Gaffie wrote in his blog that the flaw lies in a Server Message Block 2 (SMB2) driver.

"SRV2.SYS fails to handle malformed SMB headers for the NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST functionality," wrote Gaffie in a blog post Monday.

Gaffie said he had contacted Microsoft. Comments on his blog by other users said … Read more

Adobe said Thursday that it will issue fixes next week for a critical hole in Flash that is being exploited in attacks against Adobe Reader version 9 on Windows.

The vulnerability exists in current versions of Flash Player for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat v9.x for those same platforms, Adobe said in an advisory.

The vulnerability could cause a system to crash or allow an attacker to take control of the computer, Adobe said.

An update for Flash Player v9 and v10 for Windows, Mac, and Linux will … Read more

Researchers on Wednesday said they have uncovered attacks in the wild in which malicious Acrobat PDF files are exploiting a vulnerability in Flash and dropping a Trojan onto computers.

The situation could affect tons of users since Flash exists in all popular browsers, is available in PDF files, and is largely operating system-independent.

Any software that uses Flash could be vulnerable to the attack, according to Symantec. Adobe Reader is vulnerable because its Flash interpreter is vulnerable, said Paul Royal, principal researcher at Purewire, a Web security services provider.

In a post on its Web site, Adobe said it "… Read more

A security researcher has released zero-day code for a flaw in the Linux kernel, saying that it bypasses security protections in the operating system.

The source code for the exploit was made available last week by researcher Brad Spengler on the Dailydave mailing list. According to the researcher, the code exploits a vulnerability in Linux version 2.6.30, and 2.6.18, and affects both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The 2.6.18 kernel is used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The exploit bypasses null pointer de-reference protection in the mainline kernel, which could allow an attacker to … Read more

There is a critical JavaScript vulnerability in the Firefox 3.5 Web browser, Mozilla has warned.

The zero-day flaw lies in Firefox 3.5's Just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compiler. Proof-of-concept code to exploit the vulnerability has been posted online by a security research group, Mozilla said in a post on its security blog on Wednesday. Security company Secunia rated the vulnerability as "highly critical" on Wednesday.

The hole could allow a hacker to launch a "drive-by" attack, according to Mozilla. That means an attacker may be able to execute malicious code on a target machine, if … Read more

Updated 6 p.m. PDT with Microsoft comment.

It apparently didn't take long for hackers to try to take advantage of a zero-day hole in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).

Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., told The Register that servers running the program were breached on Monday, the same day Microsoft warned the public about the vulnerability.

Students accessing their iWeb pages on Monday saw messages saying the system had been hacked, The Register reported on Wednesday. There is no evidence data was stolen or malicious files uploaded, however the iWeb accounts were expected to be offline until … Read more

Microsoft will issue a patch on Tuesday to fix a critical vulnerability in PowerPoint that could be the same hole that has been exploited in limited and targeted attacks.

The vulnerability affects Microsoft Office 2000, 2003, 2007 and XP, as well as PowerPoint Viewer and Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats, according to an advance notification released on Thursday.

In a security advisory in early April, Microsoft warned about a vulnerability in PowerPoint that had been targeted by attacks that were tailored and not widespread.

That vulnerability could be exploited by getting a person … Read more