Major Internet Explorer Security Alert

A major flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser means hackers could take remote control of a computer.

It was first publicized last week, but now Microsoft believes that an unpatched security hole that affects all versions of Internet Explorer represents a greater danger than was originally believed.

The company is reportedly working on an emergency patch, but is recommending setting the internet zone security setting to ‘high’ and disabling Ole32db.dll in access control lists (ACL) to offer the best defense against attack.

In the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog, the company wrote:

"The exploit sites we’ve seen so far drop a wide variety of malware — most commonly password stealers like new variants of game password stealers like Win32/OnLineGames, and Win32/Lolyda; keyloggers like Win32/Lmir; Trojan horse applications like Win32/Helpud along with some previously unseen malware which we generically detect as Win32/SystemHijack."

"We fully expect the variety of malware being dropped by this exploit to broaden as the exploit code starts to circulate around the internet underground."

The company says that many of the sites that appear to be taking advantage of the hole are hosted in China. Attacks are targeting IE7, but all versions of the browser are vulnerable.