Microsoft: Internet Explorers 5 through 8 vulnerable to attack

Filed under: Security, Windows, Browsers

Microsoft: Internet Explorers 5 through 8 vulnerable to attack

by Brad Linder Dec 14th 2008

There's a bug in Internet Explorer that allows attackers to execute malicious code on your machine under certain conditions. When Microsoft first acknowledged the vulnerability a few days ago the company was under the impression that only Internet Explorer 7 was affected. But the security advisory has been updated and it's now clear that the flaw affects every version of Internet Explorer from IE 5.01 SP 4 through Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.

Microsoft recommends enabling a firewall and anti-virus software to minimize your risk, as well as using Protected Mode in IE7 or IE8. We'd add that you could also switch to a browser that doesn't have this vulnerability like Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, or Opera at least until Microsoft issues a fix.

[via Computer World]

Tags: internet-explorer, security, security-flaw, vulnerability

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bufsabre said 10:30AM on 12-14-2008

you do realize how generic this article is? this basically can be posted everyday due to the amount and commonness of new ways to hack windows and worse is you have to wait for ms to update it.... so 3 weeks from now this wont be an issue but 9 other ones will be

blogward said 2:58PM on 12-14-2008

I thought Windows WAS malicious code.

Michael said 7:44AM on 12-15-2008

Yeah, And?

nanomatrix said 7:44AM on 12-15-2008

Some do not have the luxury of yet removing IE, for example there are quite a few programs that require IE still...

Microsoft has a few workarounds, but keep in mind this is a really large group of browsers that effect everything from Win95 release 2 to Windows 7.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961051

You could always dual boot into another OS or sandbox your IE browser while this problem is around as well. SandBoxie, etc... heck it might even be wise to permanently sandbox IE. Google sorta does with Chrome...

whiskey said 9:22PM on 12-15-2008

You don't HAVE TO remove Internet Explorer to use another browser...

Just install Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari and when you run it, it will ask you if you want it to be your default browser. That's it.

When the fix is available, install it. If you still think you NEED Internet Explorer as your main browser, simply run it again and it will ask you if you want it to be your default browser. That's it.

That and be web safe.

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