New Phishing Attack Uses Old IE Exploit

A new phishing attack is utilizing a vulnerability in Internet Explorer, patched early this year, to hide its true source.

A serious hole in IE opens PCs up for attacks. Click here to read more.

The attack, called Citifraud.A by Panda Software, takes the form of a Web page or HTML e-mail. It has no means of self-propagation and is therefore termed a Trojan by Panda.

The page or e-mail appears to come from a bank and contains a link that appears to go to the bank Web site. The link uses a vulnerability in Internet Explorer that causes the browser to improperly display the URL of the Web site due to a flaw in a process called canonicalization.

The flaw was disclosed and patched in February.

The link, if followed, actually takes the user to a malicious Web page that requests private account information.

New measures against phishing attacks may be gaining traction. Read more here about the moves to counter cyber-crime.

Users who have patched their system can still receive the attack and click through to the malicious page, but they would see the true URL, which contains a number of unusual features.

Panda Software has categorized Citifraud.A with a threat level of "high." The companys Web site states that the largest numbers of infections have occurred in South America and southern Europe.

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