Microsoft Releases Patch for Windows XML Bug
The zero-day Internet Explorer flaw that was discovered a couple of weeks ago caused a lot of tension among IE users, about Microsoft products in general. Recently, two critical patches and five essential security updates for the Windows operating system were released by Microsoft on 29th January, 2013. However, none of these patches fixed the IE vulnerability that affected IE versions below 9. Thankfully, the XML flaw is fixed now. The critical XML vulnerability had the potential to compromise the security of the system or the enterprise. The flaw makes for a very interesting topic for a discussion in your XML training classes.
XML Flaw Had Allowed Hackers to Remotely Control Compromised Systems
The serious XML bug was discovered by Microsoft recently and the severity of the flaw was only realized later. Microsoft quickly released the update to fix the vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services, code name MS13-002. This flaw can affect any system from Windows XP through Windows 7 and Windows RT. If the miscreants exploit this flaw, they could have taken over the compromised systems and control it remotely. The level of control that the miscreants could gain by this XML security flaw is not yet clear. But now that the flaw is fixed, you can rest assured that your system is no longer vulnerable.
Code Execution Vulnerability Patched
The other critical patch that Microsoft released on Tuesday, the 29th of January, 2013, was to fix the Windows Print Spooler vulnerability, code designation MS13-001. The vulnerability was in the remote code execution of the Windows Print Spooler. This was not as serious as the XML flaw, but Microsoft managed to patch it up quickly all the same.
IE Versions below 9 Still Vulnerable
Although IE 9 and IE 10 has been patched up, users who are still running on IE versions 6,7 and 8 are still vulnerable to the zero-day flaw. It is recommended that these users switch to other browsers like Chrome or Firefox, or upgrade to IE 9 or 10.
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