Internet Explorer 6 Security Flaw Given “Extremely Critical” Status   - 1,734 Views,

Security company Secunia, Inc. has raised the security threat warning for recently revealed Internet Explorer 6 security flaws to “extremely critical”, their highest threat level.

This is the result of yet another “security” site publishing yet another set of instructions for how to exploit the security hole (what’s up with that, Aunty wants to know?)

According to Thomas Kristensen, Chief Technology Officer for Secunia, the flaw “could enable attackers to place and execute programs such as spyware and pornography dialers on victims’ computers without their knowledge”.

And, the hole is not closed merely by application of Service Pack 2, meaning that Windows users who are relying on SP2 to keep their system safe have a false sense of security.

According to Secunia, the best way to secure computers running affected versions of the IE software is to disable IE6’s Active X support, at least until Microsoft comes out with a fix.

As Aunty reported just before Christmas, these flaws, one of which is in IE’s help program, are widely exploitable. That we now have websites, ostensibly security-focused, publishing instructions detailing how to exploit these flaws, sure doesn’t help.