Norton Warns of Major Internet Explorer Vulnerability

Microsoft recently announced a zero-day vulnerability that affects Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8.  What is a zero-day vulnerability?  It means there’s a hole in Internet Explorer that a cybercriminal can take advantage of by creating a malicious threat that targets anyone who is using the vulnerable browser and is not protected. They’ll use tricks like spam, phishing, or fake websites that show up on search results to lure people to an infected site. 

This vulnerability is linked to the attacks against Google, which were publicized last week.  Part of the discussion has revolved around Trojan.Hydraq, which is being used to exploit the Internet Explorer zero day vulnerability.  Based upon the functionality of the trojan, we can safely surmise that the intent of the trojan is to open a back door on a compromised computer allowing a remote attacker to monitor activity and steal information from not only the compromised computer, but the larger infrastructure to which the computer is connected.  It is primarily a threat that affects corporations but, regardless, Norton customers have protection against the threat.

However, it’s likely cybercriminals could create an exploit in the near future that targets regular computer users.  In fact, it takes just an average seven days for a vulnerability to be exploited.  What could happen once you’re infected by a threat that exploits this vulnerability?  That all depends on what the cybercriminal has instructed the malicious threat to do – it could be anything from stealing personal information on your computer to taking over your computer so it becomes part of a bot network.

So what should computer users do to protect themselves now so they don’t become victims later?

For a more comprehensive description of Trojan.Hydraq’s abilities and some helpful images related to the trojan, please visit this posting on Symantec’s Security Response blog.