There are ways that risks can be avoided. Recently, there was what was called a zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer. As I write this, the exploit surfaced 3 weeks ago and tomorrow there will be a patch. The vulnerability would allow remote code execution through a vulnerability in the way javascript is handled. So, for that 3 week unpatched period, Internet Explorer in it’s default configuration is a sitting duck. Well, truth be told, there are other browser vulnerabilities, many unpatched. (That’s a common method for many spyware bugs to install.)
Tag: internet explorer
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Disinfecting a PC… part 10
Before I get things wrapped up, I like to scan rinse and repeat until the scans come up clean. So, this scan of AVG gives a chance to delete the archive entry I mentioned the first pass it took. And spybot get’s updated from the internet and re-runs. All looks clean there… Ad-aware get’s an update check and runs again. Everything there looks clean now. The next thing to do is disable and uninstall tightvnc, I don’t want to leave bhodemon running at boot or the tea-timer from spybot now that things are fairly settled.
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Top 10 spyware tricks of 2005
You can tell we’re in the last 10-12 days of the year when we start seeing all sorts of year end retrospectives, year’s in review, countdowns of the top ___ of ___year ending___. Well, spyware has seen a banner year in many respects and Suzi at Spyware Confidential has a rundown of the top 10 tricks used in 2005.
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If the cumulitive IE patch fails to install
This is related to MS05-054… According to Incidents.org it’s possible that this will not install (user submission of this). They also have a user submitted workaround…
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Microsoft to use same RSS icon as Firefox
Beta news is reporting that Internet Explorer 7 will use the same Icon for RSS feeds that Firefox currently uses. What’s more they say they’ll continue to work with Mozilla on consistency between the browsers….. All right, I’m going to be watching for the pigs flying next. No, seriously it’s great to see Microsoft warming up and not acting like they want to take over and crush the competition.
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Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 2 – A Software Firewall
Do I really need a hardware firewall? I’m running XP Service Pack 2 with the built in firewall? (or norton, or zonealarm?) Well, personal firewalls (the name that software firewalls go by) are good for a great many things that hardware firewalls AREN’T. They do have their limitations though and I’ll try to cover those in this post. Of course, a software firewall is running on the pc that you use to connect to the internet and one of the functions it serves is to “close the doors and windows” or those open ports that a computer can listen for connections on.
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Microsoft December 2005 Security updates
Sans has the tip that information on the critical Windows updates expected tomorrow from Microsoft has started to be released.
MS 05-54: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer
This will hopefully patch the javascript issues…
MS 05-55: Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege.
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Internet Explorer in standalone mode?
Now, it can be useful to run several versions of the same program at the same time (especially if it’s a web browser.) I’ve accomplished this under linux with internet explorer, but didn’t realize there was a way to do so on Windows. Sunbelt blog found a good guide to installing Internet Explorer 7 beta 1 on a system without tampering with their (working) IE 6 install.
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Internet Explorer 7 beta coming early next year
The title says most all, it’s reported that Microsoft will release a public beta of Internet Explorer 7 sometime in the first quarter of 2006. It’s unclear if this will be titled Beta 2 (a closed beta has already taken place.) The 2nd beta for Vista will be a public beta as well.