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Security fixes in newly released Opera 9.20
Posted on 13 April 2007.

Opera 9.20 was just released. From the security perspective, these are the fixes in the new release:

- Fix for character encoding inheritance issue with frames, which could enable cross-site scripting. See the advisory.

- Fixed an issue regarding handling of FTP PASV response, as reported by Mark at bindshell.net

- XMLHttpRequest now treats separate ports on the same server as a different server. Issue reported by Egmont Koblinger.

- Fixed an issue where scripts could continue to run after leaving the page, as reported by Herrmann Manuel.

- Skandiabanken.no's message about successful certificate installation is now shown.

(Computerworld) Bug in Windows' Animated Cursor acknowledged
Gregg Keizer 30/03/2007 09:00:07


Microsoft confirmed Thursday that Windows, including Vista, contains a critical unpatched vulnerability that can be used by attackers to usurp PCs when users surf to malicious sites.

In a security advisory posted Thursday morning, Microsoft's Security Response (MSRC) team acknowledged a bug in Windows' Animated Cursor, a component that lets developers show a short animation at the mouse pointer's location. Animated cursor files typically use the .ani extension, but the MSRC warned that hackers might disguise malicious animated cursors with other extension. The SANS Institute, in fact, said it had received reports of in-the-wild exploits using files renamed to .jpg.

"An attacker could try to exploit the vulnerability by creating a specially crafted Web page," the Microsoft advisory warned. "An attacker could also create a specially-crafted e-mail message and send it to an affected system. Upon viewing a Web page, previewing or reading a specially crafted message, or opening a specially crafted e-mail attachment, the attacker could cause the affected system to execute code."

Anti-virus vendor McAfee first noted the drive-by vulnerability late yesterday, when Craig Schmugar, the virus research manager at the company's Avert Labs, blogged about tests that showed an up-to-date copy of Windows XP SP2 was vulnerable via Internet Explorer 6 and 7. According to Schmugar, users running Firefox 2.0 appear to be safe from drive-by exploits using the vulnerability.

Although Microsoft listed Windows Vista among the affected editions -- which include Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 -- it also said that on Vista, IE 7 in its default configuration would protect users. "Customers who are using Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista are protected from currently known Web-based attacks due to Internet Explorer 7.0 protected mode," the MSRC said. However, protected mode, while on by default, can be disabled by the user.

Simply by dragging a malicious .ani file to the Vista desktop, Schmugar was able to send the operating system over the edge, and into an endless "crash-restart" loop. He has posted a video of the Vista crash on the Avert Labs site, as well as on YouTube.

In response to the new threat, security companies immediately issued their own alerts and raised overall Internet risk rankings. Symantec, for example, pushed its ThreatCon to "2."

The MRSC downplayed the threat by claiming only "very limited" attacks were in progress and saying they were "not widespread" at the moment. "[But] we are monitoring the issue and will update the advisory as new information becomes available," Adrian Stone, an MSRC program manager, said mon the group's blog.

Microsoft said it would patch the bug in a security update, but would not commit to a when. "[We] will release un update for this issue at the conclusion of our investigation," a spokeswoman said today.

The next scheduled update cycle for the Redmond, Wash. developer is April 10. Until then, Microsoft's advice to users remained basic: "Do not visit untrusted Web sites or view unsolicited e-mail."

Code has been published that can be used to exploit a recently patched Internet Explorer flaw
Robert McMillan (IDG News Service) 27/03/2007 13:46:38


New software has been published on the Internet that could be used to exploit a known flaw in Internet Explorer.

The code, which was posted Monday to the Milw0rm.com Web site, exploits a recently patched flaw in Microsoft's browser. It could be used to run unauthorized software on a computer that was not updated with the latest Microsoft patches, security experts warn.

The vulnerability was first discovered by security researcher HD Moore who posted code last July that could be used to crash the browser. Microsoft patched the flaw in February, but some security researchers say that it will get more attention from criminals because of this latest exploit code.

"This type of vulnerability has been very popular with malicious attacks in the past and we expect to see its usage increase substantially, now that exploit code is publicly available," security vendor Websense Inc. warned in a note published Monday.

Researchers at eEye Digital Security Inc. say the Milw0rm code works on IE6, but not on the latest version of Microsoft's browser.

"We've tested it against IE 7 and haven't got it to work yet," said Andre Protas, director of eEye's Preview research service.

Protas said that more reliable exploit code likely will be published in the future.