eEye Digital Security Releases Multiple Protection Strategies for Critical Zero-Day Exploit

March 30, 2007; 06:45 AM
eEye Digital Security^®, the leading developer of system security software and the foremost contributor to security research and innovation, today released a custom form of protection to immediately address a critical exploit circulating via a flaw in Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Operating System (OS). The flaw would allow a remote attacker to take complete control of an infected system. Additionally, eEye confirmed that Blink^®, the award-winning Internet client security solution, provides proactive protection against this flaw. To proactively protect Windows users around the world, eEye has released a temporary patch that prevents the flaw from being exploited. For individuals and organizations interested in receiving eEye’s temporary zero-day patch, a copy can be downloaded at http://research.eeye.com/html/alerts/zeroday/20070328.html.

“Almost a year ago to the day, we released one of the first third-party patches, proactively providing Windows users temporary protection against a serious zero-day vulnerability; we are doing it yet again,” said Marc Maiffret, eEye’s co-founder and chief hacking officer. “Unlike last year’s JScript Vulnerability, there are no immediately effective means of mitigation for this zero-day vulnerability. As a result, we encourage all Windows users to take advantage of our free patch until other means of protection become available. Alternatively, users may install Blink Personal Internet security or Blink Professional Unified Client Security, which also provide protection without the need for security patches.”

This unspecified vulnerability exists within multiple versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems and allows for a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code under the context of the logged-in user. This vulnerability can be exploited by visiting a malicious web site or opening a malformed Microsoft Office document.

This zero-day vulnerability has a very high impact since the source of the malicious payload can be any site on the Internet. An even more critical problem is generated when clients are administrators on their local hosts, which would run the malicious payload with Administrator credentials. The impact of this exploit can vary from the reported Trojan installation to full system compromise by coupling this attack with a privilege escalation vulnerability to acquire SYSTEM access, which would provide the attacker complete control over the compromised host.

The most potent attack method used by this vulnerability is conducted by embedding a malicious .ANI file within an HTML web page. Doing so allows the vulnerability to be exploited with minimal user interaction by simply coaxing a user to follow a hyperlink and visit a malicious web site. Other exploit vectors exist including Microsoft Office applications since they also rely on the same .ANI processing code, making email delivery also a potent threat by using Microsoft Office attachments.

About eEye Digital Security®

eEye Digital Security is a leading developer of system security software, and the foremost contributor to security research and innovation. eEye enables secure computing through world-renowned research and innovative technology, supplying some of the world’s largest businesses with an integrated and research-driven vulnerability assessment, intrusion prevention, and client security solution. eEye's customers represent the largest deployments of vulnerability assessment and prevention technology in the private and public sectors. eEye protects the networks and digital assets of a growing network of more than 9,000 corporate and government deployments worldwide. Founded in 1998, eEye Digital Security is headquartered in Orange County, California. For more information, please visit www.eeye.com.

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