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Internet Explorer "Aurora" Exploit |
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A recent cyber attack on roughly 20 Major U.S. companies, most notable Google, Juniper and Adobe has shown that a Zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer was the entry point for an "Aurora" Exploit that allowed a Malware Trojan called "Trojan.Hydraq" to possibly access large amounts of valuable information from high profile businesses.
Various attacks originating from China were launched against Google and other organisations. These attacks used a new, and at the time unknown, exploit now called the Aurora Exploit. This exploit consisted of two parts. The actual exploit was hosted on a web server and a social engineering attack got the victim to actually visit the infected link. From Google’s analysis it seemed that the attack was targeted hoping to get access to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists in China.
The attack wasn’t targeted directly at Google itself but to at least another 20 organization in various industries, and not just IT.
The IE vulnerability disclosed by Microsoft affects several versions of IE from 6 through to 8. However this is not a threat if running IE8 provided DEP (Data Execution Prevention) is left Active. And also Protected Mode in IE7 on Windows Vista and Windows 7 limits the impact of the vulnerability.
So far the attacks on Google have only been on PC's using Internet Explorer 6 and this has led Google to announce that it would phase out support for IE 6, starting with Google Apps and Google Sites in March.
Since the vulnerability was discovered mid January Microsoft has updated their security Advisory and has fix update information available (Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 - Critical - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-002.mspx ). As these attacks were targeted against mostly large businesses and corporations. Pc users should be aware but not alarmed as long as you keep regular windows updates you will be protected from this sort of vulnerabilities and exploits.
Just as Microsolve strives to keep up with the latest in Anti-virus definitions and vulnerability information to keep all our clients machines and information secure at all times. Microsolve can help offer you business valuable threat protection from server Firewalls to client side anti-virus protection. that will ensure your business and staff are kept safe from cyber attacks.
Ref:
http://www.gfi.com/blog/internet-explorer-0day-vulnerability-aurora-exploit/
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/186970/ie_exploit_used_to_launch_chinese_attacks_on_google.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/188506/ie_flaw_gives_hackers_access_to_user_files_microsoft_says.html
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