There’s been another IE flaw brought back to the surface today. About 6 years ago there was a method an attacker could use to force their content to be shown in a frame of another site. This could allow an attacker to put their own login form into an online banking site for example, letting them harvest your username and password for your account. The issue was patched long ago, but the patch has evidently been undone.
This is mostly a reminder note. The issue in Internet Explorer that was exploited last week to infect a number of computers is still out there. Both the infected websites AND the vulnerability still exist. There isn’t a patch for it. All you have to do is browse a site with exploit code buried in it and your IE will install whatever they send you, you’ll have no indication something has happened.
This issue seems to be present again on fully patched systems. Normally this might not warrant an alert here, but the number of phishing scams that are out, we expect someone to exploit this. So if you’re using IE you might be at your own bank’s login but sending your information somewhere else.
This advisory is posted below. Your only protection is to not use Internet Explorer. We recommend Mozilla (www.mozilla.org), it’s a very good browser.
If you’re hooked on IE, never fear. We’re hearing rumors that MS may reconstitute the IE development team, presumably to begin addressing these security issues.
Original advisory:
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TITLE:
Internet Explorer Frame Injection Vulnerability
SECUNIA ADVISORY ID:
SA11966
VERIFY ADVISORY:
http://secunia.com/advisories/11966/
CRITICAL:
Moderately critical
IMPACT:
Spoofing
WHERE:
From remote
SOFTWARE:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
http://secunia.com/product/11/
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5
http://secunia.com/product/10/
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01
http://secunia.com/product/9/
DESCRIPTION:
http-equiv has discovered a 6 year old vulnerability in Microsoft
Internet Explorer, allowing malicious people to spoof the content of
websites.
The problem is that Internet Explorer fails to stop a malicious
website from loading arbitrary content in an arbitrary frame in
another browser window. An example has been posted, which shows
arbitrary content in a frame on windowsupdate.microsoft.com.
Successful exploitation allows a malicious site to load arbitrary
content, which appears to originate from a trusted site.
This vulnerability is similar to an old vulnerability fixed by
MS98-020 in Internet Explorer version 3 and 4.
The vulnerability has been confirmed in a fully patched Internet
Explorer 6 running on Microsoft Windows XP. Other versions of
Internet Explorer may also be affected.
SOLUTION:
Do not visit or follow links from untrusted websites.
Use another browser.
PROVIDED AND/OR DISCOVERED BY:
http-equiv
OTHER REFERENCES:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms98-020.mspx