14 DAY TRIAL // British security experts from Computer Terrorism recently published a report regarding a vulnerability discovered inside the Internet Explorer browser. Should this security breach be exploited, it could allow a hacker to take over the system.
The vulnerability was confirmed by Secunia and it was rated as "extremely critical". It was first discovered on May 31st this year, but it was believed that once exploited it could only lead to a "mere" Denial of Service attack.
Now it was proved that once a PC user is tricked into visiting a malicious Web site, the exploit can be triggered automatically, without any other user interaction. The attacker prepares a special website and as soon as the user clicks the link leading to that site, it automatically downloads and installs malicious software. The flaw lies in a Javascript component of IE used for loading Web pages onto a computer.
Security researchers recommend users to disable Javascript when they visit suspicious websites or to use a different browser, such as Firefox or Opera.