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    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    Two Critical Fixes Top MS List for IE, Outlook Express Bugs

    By
    Larry Seltzer
    -
    July 13, 2004
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      Microsoft issued seven security bulletins Tuesday, two of them designated “critical,” for various versions of Windows and associated products. The company recommends that all Windows users apply the critical updates immediately.

      One of the critical bulletins, MS04-023, titled “Vulnerability in HTML Help Could Allow Code Execution,” addresses vulnerabilities in the Windows HTML Help system that were reported previously.

      An attacker could execute code on the affected system and take complete control if that users privileges were sufficient, according to the bulletin. Updates are available for Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. No patch is available yet for Windows 9x, although the bulletin says one will be available later through Windows Update.

      The other critical vulnerability, MS04-022, or “Vulnerability in Task Scheduler Could Allow Code Execution,” also allows remote code execution. The affected component, which has an unchecked buffer, is installed in many recent versions of Windows, but not in Windows Server 2003.

      Four bulletins are deemed “important,” and Microsoft recommends that users install the updates “at the earliest opportunity.”

      MS04-024 appears to be the most significant. It appears to address the Windows shell API that has been the subject of many recent attacks. The bulletin lists as mitigating factors that the attacker would have to entice the user to visit a Web site with pages that incorporate the attack.

      McAfee fellow Jimmy Kuo said McAfee Inc. rates this vulnerability more severely than Microsoft does, using an experimental in-house ratings system for vulnerabilities. The McAfee system takes into account the availability of proof of concept code in the wild, as is the case with the shell API vulnerability. Kuo said McAfee is not aware of any real-world attacks based on this vulnerability.

      /zimages/1/28571.gifA report by security firm Secunia finds that Internet Explorer may share the shell hole recently found in the Mozilla browser under Windows. Click here to read more.

      Another bulletin, MS04-019, describes a hole in the Utility Manager for Windows 2000 with Service Packs 2, 3 or 4. Utility Manager allows a user to start and stop accessibility programs such as the Magnifier, Narrator and On-Screen Keyboard. A privilege-escalation bug could allow a less-privileged user to run programs with system-level privileges.

      MS04-020 describes a vulnerability in POSIX code handling in recent versions of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. Similar to the Utility Manager bug, this one could allow privilege escalation.

      /zimages/1/28571.gifClick here to read about how flaws in Microsofts Internet Explorer are spurring users to try alternate browsers.

      Only IIS 4.0 in Windows NT 4.0 is affected by another flaw, described in MS04-021. The vulnerability involves a buffer overrun in the IIS 4.0 redirect function that could allow the execution of arbitrary code.

      Finally, MS04-018, termed a “moderate” problem, is a cumulative update for Outlook Express. The attack allows a denial of service by an attacker who uses a specially malformed e-mail header. A message with such a header could cause Outlook Express to fail.

      /zimages/1/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms Security Center at http://security.eweek.com for security news, views and analysis.

      /zimages/1/77042.gif

      Be sure to add our eWEEK.com security news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page: /zimages/1/19420.gif http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/my/addtomyyahoo2.gif

      Avatar
      Larry Seltzer
      Larry Seltzer has been writing software for and English about computers ever since—,much to his own amazement—,he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983.He was one of the authors of NPL and NPL-R, fourth-generation languages for microcomputers by the now-defunct DeskTop Software Corporation. (Larry is sad to find absolutely no hits on any of these +products on Google.) His work at Desktop Software included programming the UCSD p-System, a virtual machine-based operating system with portable binaries that pre-dated Java by more than 10 years.For several years, he wrote corporate software for Mathematica Policy Research (they're still in business!) and Chase Econometrics (not so lucky) before being forcibly thrown into the consulting market. He bummed around the Philadelphia consulting and contract-programming scenes for a year or two before taking a job at NSTL (National Software Testing Labs) developing product tests and managing contract testing for the computer industry, governments and publication.In 1991 Larry moved to Massachusetts to become Technical Director of PC Week Labs (now eWeek Labs). He moved within Ziff Davis to New York in 1994 to run testing at Windows Sources. In 1995, he became Technical Director for Internet product testing at PC Magazine and stayed there till 1998.Since then, he has been writing for numerous other publications, including Fortune Small Business, Windows 2000 Magazine (now Windows and .NET Magazine), ZDNet and Sam Whitmore's Media Survey.

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