<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div>This zero-day threat for Internet Explorer 7 was brought to my attention today by colleague Mike Halsall. (A zero-day attack or threat is a computer threat that tries to exploit unknown, undisclosed or patchfree computer application vulnerabilities.):<div><br></div><div>A critical flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 has been discovered and is being actively exploited on the Internet. Yesterday's patch release by Microsoft did not include fixes for this vulnerability, so it may become more prevalent until a patch is released.<br><br>In order for the attack to work, a user would be coerced to visit a site hosting malicious JavaScript that exploits the flaw, at which point a malicious program, compromising the computer, is downloaded and run.<br><br>This exploit only works on computers running Windows XP or 2003 that are running IE 7, and not Windows Vista. Best practices apply in order to avoid being compromised: don't click on links in emails from untrusted sources and steer clear from untrusted web sites.<br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style=""><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">A good analysis of the exploit can be found here:</span></font></div><div style=""><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div style=""><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.breakingpointsystems.com/community/blog/patch-tuesdays-and-drive-by-sundays">http://www.breakingpointsystems.com/community/blog/patch-tuesdays-and-drive-by-sundays</a></span></font></div><div style=""><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div style=""><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div><div style="; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">-Monique</span></font></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">=========================</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">Monique Yeaton</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">IT Security Awareness Consultant</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">MIT Information Services & Technology (IS&T)</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">(617) 253-2715</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><a href="http://web.mit.edu/ist/security">http://web.mit.edu/ist/security</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></span> </div><br></div></body></html>