Exploit code loose for six-month-old Windows bug

October 10, 2008 – 12:33 PM

Microsoft Corp. yesterday acknowledged that exploit code is circulating for a vulnerability it acknowledged six months ago, but has yet to patch.

It’s not clear whether Microsoft intends to fix the flaw next week.

On Thursday, Microsoft revised a security advisory it first posted April 19 about a bug in Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 that could be exploited to gain additional privileges on vulnerable machines. “Exploit code has been published on the Internet for the vulnerability addressed by this advisory,” confirmed Bill Sisk, a communications manager at Microsoft’s Security Response Center in a post to the MSRC blog.

The vulnerability has a convoluted history.

In late March, Argentinean security researcher Cesar Cerrudo announced he had found a bug that could let attackers bypass some of the security schemes in the newest versions of the operating system, including Windows Server 2008. At the time, Sick called Cerrudo’s bug a “design flaw” rather than a vulnerability, and downplayed the threat.

Source:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9116924&source=rss_topic17

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