Web Site Attacks Against Unpatched IE Flaw Spike

An anonymous reader wrote to mention a Washingtonpost.com article about an increase in attacks against IE users via a critical, unpatched flaw. The bug allows software to be downloaded to the vulnerable PC even if the only act the user takes is browsing to a web site. From the article: "[A] password-stealing program landed on the Windows PC belonging to Reaz Chowdhury, a programmer for Oracle Corp. who works out of his home in Orlando, Fla. Chowdhury said he's not sure which site he browsed in the past 24 hours that hijacked his browser, but he confirmed that the attackers had logged the user name and password for his company's virtual private network (VPN)."

Patch released!

[spaztik]

Download here:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ [mozilla.com]

Re:Ugh

[kevin_conaway]

Whats wrong with it? I've noticed attacks against the Flaw Spike too.

"... said he's not sure which site he browsed..."

[UberOogie]

*cough*porn*cough*

Ugh

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I know this is Slashdot, but can we at least have our grammar Nazis spell "grammatically" correctly?

Re:Ugh

[dotpavan]

spelling Nazi criticizing grammar nazi :)

Re:Now that's a solution!

[tinkertim]

I'm guessing Mozilla is at the top of the list ...

Re:nope

[UberOogie]

You and your facts and your articles, bah. It's funnier my way.

Was the City of Tuttle, Oklahoma...

[sharkey]

one of the sites that has been "hacked" to exploit this flaw?

Re:This is becomming not funny

[kpainter]

"They have to do MASSIVE regression testing." Ahhh, that explains it. It must be working because IE regresses with each and every day.

Re:Ugh

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why they lost WW2.

Re:Ugh

[Anonymous Coward]

didn't have any problems, guess I must be one of those luck people who can understand things and not just take them blindly at face value.

How very luck for you.

Re:*sigh*

[MasterC]

So why don't they program firefox to render pages the same way IE does it?

I'm just flabbergasted at the thought that I'm not even sure where to begin on a reply. What you are asking...is basically asking them to...break...firefox. I'm all for demolition and breaking stuff just as much as the next guy but that's usually in the name of progress and I see little "progress" in such a proposal.

As lame and well-used as it is: what you're proposing is for the firefox developers to jump off a bridge just becuase 90% of the people are doing it...

By no means am I saying firefox is perfect, but....damn dude.

Re:a programmer for Oracle Corp

[slakdrgn]

Its more, how much longer will he have a job after releasing this information...

I doubt he talked to his boss before blabbing that one.

Anyone..

[Viraptor]

Anyone else finds something funny in this sentence?
"...hackers have infected at least 200 sites, many of which you would not normally expect to associate with such attacks (i.e., porn and pirated-software vendors)."
I see two things...

Re:Ugh

[zerocool^]

Godwin explodes. Details at 11.

~W

Re:That why I stay with #2 or #3

[rabel]

Reminds me of one of the developers I worked with many years ago. Out of the blue, he announces he is getting married. Nobody was really "tight" with this guy, so this wasn't all that shocking. However, he brought his new bride into the office a couple of weeks later, after the honeymoon. She wasn't all that attractive, to say the least. Anyhow, in casual conversation he takes it upon himself to mention that, "I know she's not the most attractive woman out there, but at least I know other men won't be tempted to steal her away."

This is a true story. So, keep dating those wallflowers and using those obscure O/S's, boys! It's SAFER that way!

Internet Exploder and the people who still use it

[Anonymous Coward]

There are die-hard people who just insist that the only browser they use is internet exploder. For those people, go out, find this virus, get your computer infected, let the bad people steal your banking information and your identity. Then when you've had just about enough, go to the mirror, stare into it with intensity, suck in a big deep breath of air, clench your fists, lower your eyebrows and shout at the image in the mirror "DUMBASS!" Then, go out and get another browser (one that doesn't suck or turn your computer into a botnet slave). You could switch before you get the infection (and all that), but if you haven't switched before now, then its best if the therapy is more harsh.

And the bottom line is ...

[RockDoctor]

FTFA : Case in point: One guy I contacted to tell him his site was serving up this exploit code went to check his home page and then told me his browser just crashed on him. I had to ask: "Don't tell me you just visited the site in IE?" He had. I could only shake my head and sigh.

BEATS HEAD SLOWLY AGAINST BRICK WALL.
THIS IS UNSATISFACTORY.
GOES OUT AND FINDS granite WALL.
BEATS HEAD AGAINST IT.
MUCH BETTER!