Tech & Biz

Stop Using Internet Explorer! Exploit Still Not Fixed

by Rob Walker | December 16, 2008 at 12:44 pm

258 views | 2 Recommendations | 1 comment

Users of any current version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser should stop using the software immediately, at least until Microsoft puts out a patch tomorrow.

Users of all current versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser might be vulnerable to having their computers hijacked because of a serious security hole in the software that had yet to be fixed Monday.
The flaw lets criminals commandeer victims' machines merely by tricking them into visiting Web sites tainted with malicious programming code. As many as 10,000 sites have been compromised since last week to exploit the browser flaw, according to antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc.

NowPublic user Emilio Lizardo posted about the issue when it first reared its ugly head yesterday. Internet Explorer has always been vulnerable to attack, partially due to its coding and because it's simply the most used web browser.

If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, and chances are you may well be, then your computer is vulnerable to a hijacking attack, a serious breach of your system's security indeed.

There's a page here that shows just what has been affected and how the vulnerability can be exploited against users.

A vulnerability has been discovered in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.

Microsoft is scrambling to release a patch that will hopefully fix the exploit tomorrow:

Microsoft is planning an out-of-band patch for Internet Explorer browser Wednesday as malware attacks escalate.

With users not able to use Internet Explorer, will market share of free software like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox pick up any of the slack?

Google Chrome is a free web browser that is hoped to take the fight to other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Google Chrome is based on the WebKit layout engine and application framework.