Windows Vulnerability, Very Serious (WMF)

[Raycaster]

Windows Metafiles have a serious vulnerability. Seems that Microsoft thought it was a good idea to have image files be able to contain executable code. And because of the magic number in the wmf file, it can actually be renamed to jpg or bmp and Windows will still recognize it as a WMF file and still process it as such. If you get one of the files going around it will install spyware without you realizing it. You will see the image and not know that code is executing in the background. It doesn't matter what web browser / email reader you are using as the image file will be passed onto the Windows GDI process for rendering. Firefox and Thunderbird will not save you since this is a Windows OS and not IE exploit.

This one is very serious and MS will not have a patch until the 10th. Uber windows coder Ilfak Guilfanov has released an unofficial patch to fix the problem. I have used it on my Windows XP boxes without a problem. Unfortunately this patch doesn't work on all versions of Windows even though the vulnerability goes all the way back to Windows 3.0.

Thanks Microsoft just the X-mas / New Years present I wanted. BTW this post courtesy of Firefox and Fedora Core 4 Linux.

Links to the unofficial fix and information about the vulnerability.
Ilfak's web site
CNN Money article
CastleCop's discussion forum on this problem
It's not a bug, it's a feature ZDNet UK article ecouraging use of unofficial fix

Edited subject since it was truncated to "Very Serious Windows" on main page.

[Ldsmith104]

Thanks for the info

[Namloot]

It appears Sir Bill and Co. have released thier official fix for this:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-001.mspx

[Tommy Boy]

is this worth installing?

[Mugzy]

Yes, install it. Without the fix, someone could infect your pc if you just visit the wrong website or look at the wrong image.

[Chacal]

If there's one file on the net with that exploit, Tommy will find it.

[=ender=]

Thanks for the tip, Raycaster. And Chacal!

[Tommy Boy]

Originally posted by Chacal
If there's one file on the net with that exploit, Tommy will find it.

now that hurts...