Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Investigating Windows 7 Vulnerability Reported as “Highly Critical”

A report is circulating about a new Windows 7 bug that could be leveraged by attackers to run malicious code.

A report is circulating about a new Windows 7 bug that could be leveraged by attackers to run malicious code.

Microsoft told SecurityWeek that it is looking into the bug. A researcher named webDEVIL posted on Twitter that the issue could be exploited via an iFrame, resulting in the infamous blue screen of death. Vulnerability management vendor Secunia confirmed the bug, and followed up with an advisory of its own. It classified the issue as “Highly Critical.”

“The vulnerability is caused due to an error in win32k.sys and can be exploited to corrupt memory via e.g. a specially crafted web page containing an IFRAME with an overly large “height” attribute viewed using the Apple Safari browser,” according to Secunia. “Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code with kernel-mode privileges.”

The vulnerability is confirmed on a fully-patched Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OS, the firm added, noting that other versions may be affected as well.

“We are currently examining the issue and will take appropriate action to help ensure customers are protected,” Jerry Bryant, group manager of response communications for Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Microsoft released a hefty Patch Tuesday update to address 19 separate security bugs. Barring an out-of-band release of a patch for this or some other vulnerability before January, the company would have released a total of 99 security bulletins for the year, down 7 from 2010.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Written By

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

Apple has released updates for macOS, iOS and Safari and they all include a WebKit patch for a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-23529.

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

IoT Security

A vulnerability affecting Dahua cameras and video recorders can be exploited by threat actors to modify a device’s system time.