The dangerous Internet Explorer attack code used in last month's attack on Google's corporate networks is now public.
The code was submitted for analysis Thursday on the Wepawet malware analysis Web site, making it publicly available. By Friday, it had been included in at least one publicly available hacking tool and could be seen in online attacks, according to Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee.
The attack is very reliable on Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP, and it could possibly be modified to work on more recent versions of the browser, Marcus said. "The game really changes now that it's hosted publicly," he said.
A hacker could use the code to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer by tricking them into viewing a maliciously crafted Web page.
That's apparently what happened at Google late last year, when hackers were able to get into the company's internal systems. According to people familiar with the incident, 33 other companies were also targeted by the attack, including Adobe Systems.
On Thursday, Symantec and Juniper Networks said they were investigating the incident, and Yahoo, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical have also been named as victims in published reports.
Microsoft issued a security advisory on the IE flaw Thursday and has not ruled out the possibility of rushing out an emergency "out-of-cycle" patch to fix it. Microsoft's next set of security patches is due Feb. 9, giving hackers more than three weeks to exploit the flaw.
Security researchers say it would be very hard to exploit the flaw reliably on Windows Vista or Windows 7 systems, however, because of their advanced memory protection technology.
Marcus said that, judging from the amount of concern McAfee is hearing from corporate customers, an out-of-cycle patch is a strong possibility. "My gut tells me that they're going to go with an out-of-cycle," he said. "It's too good of a vulnerability for most of the bad guys to overlook."
The problem is serious enough that on Friday, Germany's federal IT security agency, the Federal Office for Information Security, advised users (in German) to use an alternative browser until Microsoft fixes the issue. (ComputerWorld - IDG News Service - Robert Mc Milan)
The code was submitted for analysis Thursday on the Wepawet malware analysis Web site, making it publicly available. By Friday, it had been included in at least one publicly available hacking tool and could be seen in online attacks, according to Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee.
The attack is very reliable on Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP, and it could possibly be modified to work on more recent versions of the browser, Marcus said. "The game really changes now that it's hosted publicly," he said.
A hacker could use the code to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer by tricking them into viewing a maliciously crafted Web page.
That's apparently what happened at Google late last year, when hackers were able to get into the company's internal systems. According to people familiar with the incident, 33 other companies were also targeted by the attack, including Adobe Systems.
On Thursday, Symantec and Juniper Networks said they were investigating the incident, and Yahoo, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical have also been named as victims in published reports.
Microsoft issued a security advisory on the IE flaw Thursday and has not ruled out the possibility of rushing out an emergency "out-of-cycle" patch to fix it. Microsoft's next set of security patches is due Feb. 9, giving hackers more than three weeks to exploit the flaw.
Security researchers say it would be very hard to exploit the flaw reliably on Windows Vista or Windows 7 systems, however, because of their advanced memory protection technology.
Marcus said that, judging from the amount of concern McAfee is hearing from corporate customers, an out-of-cycle patch is a strong possibility. "My gut tells me that they're going to go with an out-of-cycle," he said. "It's too good of a vulnerability for most of the bad guys to overlook."
The problem is serious enough that on Friday, Germany's federal IT security agency, the Federal Office for Information Security, advised users (in German) to use an alternative browser until Microsoft fixes the issue. (ComputerWorld - IDG News Service - Robert Mc Milan)
More details information about attack from McAfee:
“Aurora” Exploit In Google Attack Now Public
McAfee Labs researchers have seen references to the code on mailing lists and confirmed on Friday that the code was published on at least one Web site. The exploit code is the same code that McAfee Labs had been investigating and shared with Microsoft earlier this week, resulting in a security advisory from Microsoft that was published on Thursday.
The public release of the exploit code increases the possibility of widespread attacks using the Internet Explorer vulnerability. The now public computer code may help cybercriminals craft attacks that use the vulnerability to compromise Windows systems. Popular penetration testing tools are already being updated to include this exploit. This attack is especially deadly on older systems that are running XP and Internet Explorer 6.
As reported on Thursday by McAfee and confirmed by Microsoft, the security vulnerability affects Internet Explorer on all recent versions of Windows. An attacker could gain complete control over a vulnerable system by tricking a user to visit a rigged Web page. New versions of Windows make this exploitation harder, but not impossible.
McAfee Labs has been working around the clock, diving deep into the attack we are calling “Operation Aurora” that hit multiple companies and was publicly disclosed by Google on Tuesday. In our investigation of the attack we discovered that one of the malware samples involved in this broad attack exploits a new, previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Many people are taking the matter seriously. The German government, for example, has recommended that its citizens stop using Internet Explorer and use alternative browsers instead.
One of the areas I continue to get questions on is how to stop zero day attacks. One technology is white listing, such as products from our Solidcore family (application control) help to protect against 0-day attacks without signatures and without applying a patch. This is especially important in cases like this, where patches have yet to be released.
McAfee continues to work closely with Microsoft, the government and others to investigate the attacks. Stay tuned to my blog and my Twitter account for more details. (siblog.mcafee - George Kurtz)
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