Apple Store“A new security vulnerability puts Windows users at risk of serious cyberattacks, Microsoft warned late Wednesday,” Joris Evers reports for CNET News.

“The vulnerability affects all recent Windows versions, including Vista, which Microsoft has promoted heavily for its security. The operating system software is flawed in the way it handles animated cursors, Microsoft said in a security advisory,” Evers reports. “An attacker could exploit the vulnerability through a Web page or e-mail message with rigged computer code, Microsoft said.”

“Sample code that demonstrates the vulnerability has already been posted on the Web, McAfee said in a security alert sent to customers. ‘Malware exploiting this vulnerability has been observed in the wild,’ the security company said in the alert,” Evers reports.

“‘I expect attackers will pick up on this as soon as they figure out how to, we’ll very shortly see the usual suspects using it,’ said Roger Thompson, chief technology officer at security software maker Exploit Prevention Labs. ‘The sample site is already offline; this could be a prelude to a bigger attack,’” Evers reports.

Evers reports, “The animated-cursors feature is designated by the .ani suffix, but a successful attack is not constrained by this file type, Microsoft said. As a result, simply blocking such files won’t protect a PC.”

Full article here.

Windows Vista ANI File Handling DoS:

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