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