• Another 0day exploit in Internet Explorer – XMLHTTP

    Looks like we have yet another 0day exploit in Internet Explorer, including both the old, bad IE 6 and the shiny, new, bullet-proof IE 7.

    Microsoft’s Security Advisory 927892 says “An attacker could host a specially crafted Web site that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then persuade a user to view the Web site. This can also include Web sites that accept user-provided content or advertisements, Web sites that host user-provided content or advertisements, and compromised Web sites. These Web sites could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability.”

    Which is a fancy way of saying, “if you use Internet Explorer – including the new, ultra-secure IE 7 – you’re toast.” You can get bit by a bad Web site. But you can also get bit by a bad ad on a good Web site.

    There’s some detailed info in the Xforce announcement. Apparently, there are exploits in the wild.

    Yes, this is the second real, hard security hole found in Internet Explorer 7 this week. There were two others that are marginal. But these two holes are show-stoppers.

    Microsoft’s solution is to disable ActiveX. Again.

    My solution is to use Firefox. As I explained last week, you need to download and install (and harden) Internet Explorer 7. But DON’T USE IT. Use Firefox 2 instead.

    If you aren’t using Firefox, you’re just asking for trouble.