Microsoft Plans Emergency Patch

Microsoft Plans Emergency Patch

Microsoft is planning to issue an out-of-cycle update to address a new rash of attacks targeting Internet Explorer 7. Thecompany issued an alert on Tuesday to notify users that the update will be released on Wednesday to a fix a security flaw in the web browser which has been actively targeted in the wild.


The vulnerability is only believed to exist in IE7. Other programs and earlier versions of the browser are not believed to be at risk.

According to Trend Micro, the flaw exists in the handling of certain text files which are launched through WordPad. When a specially-crafted document is launched, the application crashes, leaving the attacker able to access the targeted system and execute code.