0 Day exploit in Internet explorer

What is the purpose of this alert?

This alert is to notify you that Microsoft has released Security Advisory 2757760 – Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution – on September 17, 2012.

SUMMARY

Microsoft is investigating public reports of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Internet Explorer 9. Internet Explorer 10 is not affected. Microsoft is aware of targeted attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability.

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.

On completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include providing a solution through our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.

MITIGATING FACTORS

• By default, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 runs in a restricted mode that is known as Enhanced Security Configuration. This mode mitigates this vulnerability.

• By default, all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows Mail open HTML email messages in the Restricted sites zone. The Restricted sites zone, which disables script and ActiveX controls, helps reduce the risk of an attacker being able to use this vulnerability to execute malicious code. If a user clicks a link in an email message, the user could still be vulnerable to exploitation of this vulnerability through the web-based attack scenario.

• An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

• In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website that contains a webpage that is used to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these websites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the website, typically by getting them to click a link in an email message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker’s website.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Review Microsoft Security Advisory 2757760  – Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution -http://technet.microsoft.com/security/advisory/2757760

Customers who believe they are affected can contact Customer Service and Support by using any method found at this location: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/support/default.mspx

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/msrc

• Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc

REGARDING INFORMATION CONSISTENCY

We strive to provide you with accurate information in static (this mail) and dynamic (web-based) content. Microsoft’s security content posted to the web is occasionally updated to reflect late-breaking information. If this results in an inconsistency between the information here and the information in Microsoft’s web-based security content, the information in Microsoft’s web-based security content is authoritative.

Thank you,

Microsoft CSS Security Team

This is a very serious issue and at this time, until Microsoft issue a patch , you are strongly advised to download & install  EMET, which should protect against this exploit & the majority of future exploits

Deploy the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit

Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) is a utility that helps prevent vulnerabilities in software from successfully being exploited by applying in-box mitigations such as DEP to applications configured in EMET.

At this time, EMET is provided with limited support and is only available in the English language. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2458544.

Configure EMET for Internet Explorer from the EMET user interface

To add iexplore.exe to the list of applications using EMET, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start, All Programs, Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, and EMET 3.0.
2. Click Yes on the UAC prompt, click Configure Apps, then select Add. Browse to the application to be configured in EMET.
   For 32-bit installations of Internet Explorer the location is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
   Note For 32-bit systems, the path is c:\program files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
   For 64-bit installations of Internet Explorer the location is: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
3. Click OK and exit EMET.