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November 19, 2004 12:00 AM

Multiple Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6

Windows IT Pro
InstantDoc ID #44564
Rating: (6)

Reported November 17, 2004, by cyber flash

VERSIONS AFFECTED

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0

DESCRIPTION
Two vulnerabilities have been discovered in IE that can be used to bypass a security feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and trick users into downloading malicious files. These two vulnerabilities are:

  • Windows XP SP2 has a security feature that warns users when they open downloaded files of certain types. The problem is that, in some situations, users won't receive the security warning if the downloaded file was sent with a specially crafted Content-Location HTTP header.
  • An error when saving some documents using the Javascript execCommand() function can be exploited to spoof the file extension in the Save HTML Document dialog box.

Successful exploitation requires that the option "Hide extension for known file types" is enabled (default setting). A malicious Web site can combine these two vulnerabilites to trick a user into downloading a malicious executable file masquerading as a HTML document.
 

VENDOR RESPONSE
Microsoft has not released a fix or bulletin that addresses this vulnerability.

CREDIT
Discovered by cyber flash.

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ARTICLE TOOLS

Comments
  • Anonymous User
    8 years ago
    Nov 25, 2004

    Is this like the Readers wives section>

  • Anonymous User
    8 years ago
    Nov 25, 2004

    Hm, 2 questions regarding the issues..:
    Before: no Sp2
    After: there's Sp2

    I just wonder if does it matter if there's sp2 or not. I mean before you neither got the message about file downloads (btw, it's a really annoying feature).
    Other question/update is: there was an error in Netscape (many y ago) and in opera (probably 1/2 y ago) where you were able to force the download location. I don't know if you want to write about it but it isn't a security issue - for me(!) - if you are just to change the extension. Expl': create a html document with .exe extension, save it by save as (is that a problem? not really - as i said: at me).

  • Anonymous User
    8 years ago
    Nov 24, 2004

    Mister 'screw IE', Your razor sharp intellectual comments have completely changed my opinion on this matter. You are truly a poet.

  • Anonymous User
    8 years ago
    Nov 24, 2004

    "Screw IE"??
    "Firefox rules??"

    Please restrict your posts to the under-12 "script-kiddy" area....

  • Anonymous User
    8 years ago
    Nov 24, 2004

    Screw IE. Firefox rules. IE is only useful for non-critical Windows updates, apart from that, it's obsolete!

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