Security Hole in Word Allows Attack Through Email with Ginwui.a Trojan   - 1,519 Views,

Summary: Ginwui.a (also Oscor-B, W32/Ginwui.A.dr, Backdoor.Ginwui, and W32/Ginwui.A) takes advantage of a security hole in Microsoft Word, allowing attackers to infiltrate your computer through email.

Previous Article « Check Raised RBCalc.exe Online Poker Calculator has Money-Stealing Small.la Trojan On Board
Read Next Article » Email Wrongly Trapped by Spam Filter Costs Taxpayers $250,000

  Follow Anne on Twitter

A security hole in Microsoft Word - yes, you read that right, MS Word - allows attackers to infiltrate your computer through email, according to online security companies Symantec, F-Secure and Sophos, and the Internet Storm Center (ISC).

The trojan which takes advantage of the hole in Word is being called Ginwui.A (also Oscor-B, W32/Ginwui.A.dr, Backdoor.Ginwui, and W32/Ginwui.A).

How’s that work, then, you may wonder.

According to Symantec, “The attacks use Word document attachments in e-mail messages to trigger the security hole and run code that gives attackers control over vulnerable systems.”

F-Secure’s Mikko Hyppönen, explains that “We have seen malicious Word documents using similar or the same vulnerability in the past, but they have only worked on Chinese language versions of Word…This new version works on English language versions of Word, so there is obviously the potential for the attack to have a larger potential audience of victims.”

Sophos has also confirmed this trojan, which they call Oscor-B.

As always, the best defense is a good offense, so secure your computer with these 3 simple steps to take back the net.

Security Hole in Word Allows Attack Through Email with Ginwui.a Trojan

 Follow Anne on Twitter

 Twitter Explained in Plain English

 Friend Anne on Facebook

Previous Article « Check Raised RBCalc.exe Online Poker Calculator has Money-Stealing Small.la Trojan On Board
Read Next Article » Email Wrongly Trapped by Spam Filter Costs Taxpayers $250,000

Read more:

»  Security Hole in Microsoft Excel

»  Hole in Microsoft Word for Windows and Mac Allows Attack from Internet

»  Microsoft Word Vulnerability Exploit Through Jet Database: Word Up on Security Hole

»  Unexpected Online Greeting Cards May Carry Trojan Horses

For additional similar stories check out our archives on Security, Windows

NOTE: We never, ever, ever will recommend any product or service on this site that we have not regularly used ourselves and do not wholeheartedly believe in. That said, in some cases after being very pleased with a product or service, we may enter into a relationship with the provider of that product or service such that if someone purchases that product or service based on our recommendation, we may get a small payment. Such payments go towards the upkeep of the Internet Patrol.

 

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Warning! All comments which contain URLs and are clearly just spam to generate a link back to the URL will be deleted on sight. Don't bother wasting your time!

If you are going to include a URL in your comment,
please keep it under 25 characters in length,
or use TinyURL to shorten it before including it in your comment.

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic, your email address is never displayed.
HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)


If you have not posted a comment here before, we apologize for having to ask you to enter the letters and numbers you see in the image above to validate your comment, but we are being attacked by thousands of comment form spams every day! You only need to do this once; once you have successfuly posted a comment here you will not be asked to do this again. Thank you for your understanding!

 
 This article first appeared on 5/20/2006
The Internet Patrol
Patrolling the Internet for You!