Today =?Utf-8?B?VGhlIERyYWdvbnMgV2Vi?= commented courteously
on the subject at hand
To quote Microsoft
Executive Summary:
This update resolves a newly-discovered, privately-reported
vulnerability. The vulnerability is documented in the
"Vulnerability Details" section of this bulletin.
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability
could take complete control of an affected system. An
attacker could then install programs; view, change, or
delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.
If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an
attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability
could take complete control of an affected system. An
attacker could then install programs; view, change, or
delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.
Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user
rights on the system could be less impacted than users who
operate with administrative user rights.
We recommend that customers apply the update immediately.
Thank you. Just like product recalls, which rarely actually
affect more than 1 or maybe 2% of products recalled, I'd be
surprised if M$ has direct evidence of more than a mere
twinkling in their perverted eye of a /real/ threat here or in
previous identified threats so convincingly written up. I
can't remember the last time the alleged compromise doesn't
say something, somewhere like the above: "an attacker who
successfully exployited this vulnerability could take complete
control of an affected system."
Hmmm. Sounds a lot like the very thing designed to prevent
this - turning on Windoze Updates to Automatic and let Bill
the Gates take over your machine! ROTFL!
Any evidence of this vulnerability being exploited?
No, but then, I pretty much have /never/ heard of a real-life
person getting compromised by something M$ has indentified and
"fixed". Attacked and compromised? Yes. Hosed royally? Yes.
Fixed by all the Critical Updates since the cavemen? Not that
I've heard.
But, once burned, twice shy, so I do read the stuff and
judiciously apply them /after/ creating my own RP. The reason
I'm so curious about this one is that I can find no evidence
of the exe in question on either of my XP boxes and don't
think I ever got the update notice, but my radar is certainly
on attack frequency right now! <grin>
Seriously, I follow the advice so many in these many Windoze
NGs give - watch and wait for the early updaters -
particularly those dummies with Automatic set so they wake up
in the morning with a dead system - to find the bugs, report
them to Bill the Gates, and wait for a fix.
