Security Watch | Matt Hines » Microsoft's WMF screen door still open but small patch available

December 30, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft's WMF screen door still open but small patch available

TAGS: Podcast

Earlier this week Microsoft announced a Zero-Day buffer overflow vulnerability in its Windows Metafile (WMF) graphics format affecting all version of Windows. Here it is days later and there's still no resolution.

Unfortunately, F-Secure is reporting that there are over seventy different dangerous WMF files capable of causing system damage in the wild so far using publicly available exploits.

Along with updating anti-virus signatures on your machines it is also suggested to update Intrusion Detection and Prevention System signatures and filter WMF files at HTTP proxies.

While Microsoft hasn't been able to stem the tide of malicious Web page images or HTML email causing problems, the main developer of the IDA Pro Disassembler & Debugger, Ilfak Guilfanov has a temporary fix for XP SP2 on his blog.

This patch should work for some Windows XP systems in the short term, at least until MS provides an alternative.

Listen now to the audio companion for this blog. InfoWorld Zero Day Podcast: 30 Seconds to Zero.
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Posted by Victor R. Garza on December 30, 2005 05:30 PM

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