Message boards : The Lounge : Is anything safe about this Operating System?
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Send message Joined: 29 Aug 05 Posts: 15558 |
From BBC News: Users warned on Windows cursors |
Send message Joined: 29 Aug 05 Posts: 15558 |
Also from BBC News: Quick fix for Windows cursor flaw |
Send message Joined: 19 Jan 07 Posts: 1179 |
Oh god, and I thought infection via Windows Metafile images was already bad enough... Websites can "easily" set custom cursors, to be used only within that page. If there is a security problem on the code that loads or displays the cursor, Bad Things Happen. I think it would be great if some important website included an "exploit" for this vulnerability, that would download a patch for it. It has been done before: security experts sending the patches using the same security hole that the trojan uses, "infecting" computers with the *fix*, closing the hole. |
Send message Joined: 19 Jan 07 Posts: 1179 |
Yep, it's *that* bad. I just created an .ani file using unmodified proof-of-concept code. When loaded, it closes whatever program you used (probably explorer.exe). Scary security hole... |
Send message Joined: 19 Jan 07 Posts: 1179 |
Yep, it's *that* bad. I just created an .ani file using unmodified proof-of-concept code. When loaded, it closes whatever program you used (probably explorer.exe). Scary security hole... Failed at making it do anything else than closing explorer. DEP is luckily protecting me just as it should. |
Send message Joined: 19 Jan 07 Posts: 1179 |
A Windows Update just installed on my computer. It has fixes for the animated cursor vulnerability, and other 5 less critical vulnerabilities in GDI. More info in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-017. Make sure you get it installed! |
Send message Joined: 29 Aug 05 Posts: 15558 |
MS has got a hotfix to patch the things the animated cursor patch breaks: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448 |
Send message Joined: 19 Jan 07 Posts: 1179 |
MS has got a hotfix to patch the things the animated cursor patch breaks: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448 oh my ****ing god... The animated cursor patch broke things? From what I read, the fix was quite simple. How did they manage to break it? "Is anything safe about this Operating System?" :D I can't understand how the animated cursor bug needed a change in Hhctrl.ocx to get fixed, although the "animated cursor patch" actually included fixes for other GDI-related problems as well, so it could have been one of those. It was interesting to read what a mess the code managing on Microsoft is, on The Windows Shutdown crapfest (already posted by another user on this forum, I think it was on the BOINC & Vista thread). That link explains so much... |
Send message Joined: 29 Aug 05 Posts: 15558 |
Microsoft had to rush the patch. It was originally scheduled for a 14th of April release but was released on the 4th of April, because World of Warcraft users were being targeted. Now I can figure there's a lot of WoW sites out there. But do they all need IE to run? |
Send message Joined: 19 Jan 07 Posts: 1179 |
Also, I don't understand why they waited until it was too late. They knew it since December! The fact that they rushed to get it done after it was being exploited means they didn't really take from December till now to get it finished: they could have rushed a bit before and release it before anybody knew the bug even existed. |
Send message Joined: 16 Apr 06 Posts: 386 |
IMHO the trouble was they fixed the wrong problem. There is no good reason for IE to be loading animated cursors without asking from any old web site it comes across (featuritis). All these fancy features should be off by default in any case (starting with ActiveX). They should have blocked IE from loading .ANIs *first* and then taken their time sorting out the underlying code. |
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