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Trojan uses MS hole to hijack Web browsers.

October 02, IDG News Service — Trojan uses MS hole to hijack Web browsers.

Computer hackers have found a way to exploit an unpatched hole in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser, using a specially designed attack Website to install a Trojan horse program called Qhosts−1 on vulnerable Windows machines. The Trojan program changes the DNS (Domain Name System) configuration on the Windows machine so that requests for popular Web search engines bring the Web surfer to a Website maintained by the hackers instead, according to warnings from leading security companies. The attacks are just the latest in a string of online scams that rely on a flaw in IE known as the "ObjectData" vulnerability. Microsoft released a patch for the ObjectData vulnerability, MS03−032, in August. However, even machines that applied that patch are vulnerable to the latest attack because of holes in that security patch. Microsoft said Thursday, October 2, that it was investigating reports of exploits for a variation on a vulnerability originally patched in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03−032 and would release a fix for that hole shortly. A company spokesman could not say when the patch update will be released. The company recommended that users install the latest Windows updates and change their IE Internet security zone settings to notify the user when suspicious programs are being run.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/02/HNtrojanhack_1.html
 
Date sent: Sat, 4 Oct 2003 10:25:14 +0200
To: [deleted]
Subject: [sec-adv] Microsoft Internet Explorer Update to fix the Object Data Vulnerability
From: Secunia Security Advisories <sec-adv@secunia.com>

TITLE: Microsoft Internet Explorer Update to fix the Object Data Vulnerability

SECUNIA ADVISORY ID: SA9935

VERIFY ADVISORY: http://www.secunia.com/advisories/9935/

CRITICAL: Extremely critical

IMPACT: System access

WHERE: From remote

SOFTWARE:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6

DESCRIPTION: Microsoft has released a new cumulative patch, which fixes the Object Data vulnerability, which was inadequatedly addressed in MS03-32.
The Object Data vulnerability could be exploited to execute arbitrary code through HTML documents such as emails and web pages.

Further information about the Object Data vulnerability: SA9580

Furthermore, this cumulative patch changes some behaviour of DHTML, which in combination with other vulnerabilities or programs such as Windows Media Player could lead to execution of arbitrary code. This change does not seem to fix the problem completely as Microsoft still recommend users to upgrade Windows Media Player.

For more information: SA9358

SOLUTION: The patch is available from WindowsUpdate or from: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/828750/default.asp

For Windows Server 2003: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/828750s/default.asp

This patch supercedes any previous patches for Internet Explorer.

Microsoft recommend that you install the latest version of Windows Media Player: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp

Secunia recommend that you remove Windows Media Player if it isn't needed.

ORIGINAL ADVISORY: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-040.asp

OTHER REFERENCES:
SA9580:
http://www.secunia.com/advisories/9580/

SA9358:
http://www.secunia.com/advisories/9358/

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