* Patches from Microsoft, Gentoo, Debian, others * Top 10 viruses reported from Trend Micro * Smokers may be the weak IT security link, and other interesting reading
Today’s bug patches and security alerts:
New Apple update fixes multiple flaws
A new update from Apple fixes flaws in Finder, iChat (two flaws) and UserNotification. The most serious of the flaws could be exploited to gain elevated privileges on an affected machine.
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US-CERT warns of Sourcefire Snort DCE/RPC Preprocessor flaw
A buffer overflow flaw in the Sourcefire Snort DCE/RPC preprocessor could be exploited to run malicious code on an affected machine. Snort 2.6.1.3 fixes the flaw.
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Microsoft patches include a surprise
There was a little surprise buried in Microsoft’s monthly security bulletins Tuesday. It turns out that Microsoft had quietly slipped out one of the February fixes, just days before its Jan. 30 Vista launch. IDG News Service, 02/15/07.
This shouldn’t be a big deal. If Microsoft has a vital patch tested and ready to go well before the scheduled “Patch Tuesday” release, it should be allowed out early to shorten any potential exploit window.
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Experts warn of new Firefox bug
According to an advisory from F-Secure, There’s a new bug reported in the way Firefox handles writes to the ‘location.hostname’ DOM property. The vulnerability could potentially allow a malicious website to manipulate the authentication cookies for a third-party site. The bug was submitted by Michal Zalewski and was tested with the current version of Firefox.”
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Four new updates from Gentoo:
AMD64 x86 emulation Sun’s J2SE Development Kit (multiple flaws)
Sun JDK and JRE (multiple flaws)
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Two new updates from Ubuntu:
MoinMoin (cross-scripting attack)
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Three new patches from Debian:
fetchmail (information disclosure)
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Top 10 viruses reported over the past week, according to Trend Micro:
1. Troj_Generic (15,021)
2. Worm_Nyxem.E (8,801)
3. Worm_Anig.A (7,208)
4. Html_Netsky.P (6,361)
5. Troj_Generic.Z (6,359)
6. Worm_Netsky.Dam (6,249)
7. Adw_Funweb.Q (5,313)
8. Possible_Infostl (5,078)
9. Troj_Horst.Hf (4,439)
10. Worm_Rontkbr.Gen (3,784)
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From the interesting reading department:
Smokers may be the weak IT security link
Where there’s smoke, there’s a door. A U.K. security company is warning that smokers may impact IT security, leaving open doors that could let in intruders who could abuse a company’s network. IDG News Service, 02/16/07.
Dodgy program advertised on MSN Messenger
Banner advertisements for a security application said to report false or inflated threats appeared for at least a few days on Microsoft Corp.’s instant messaging (IM) program, prompting warnings from security analysts. IDG News Service, 02/19/07.
