Internet Explorer Vulnerability

♫ You may think I’m strong
and I can do no wrong
but I’m vulnerable
so vulnerable…♫

Music and lyrics by Pet Shop Boys.

Microsoft has reported a vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer.  While Microsoft has posted security workarounds and US-CERT has recommended that users implement them, they only work for the two most recent versions of IE (10 and 11).  Moreover, they are reported to be technically complex.

:

The IE vulnerability is a big deal, said Will Dormann, vulnerability analyst in the CERT Division of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Continuing to use IE may result in What is a user to do? Download and install Firefox or Google Chrome or another browser and stop using IE immediately until a patch is released by Microsoft.

The vulnerabilty allows the ‘bad guys’ to hijack your computers and execute code.  reports that “Microsoft is aware of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to exploit [this] vulnerability in Internet Explorer.”
There will be no patch issued for Microsoft XP which is yet another reason to move away from XP to Windows 7.