Thursday, Jul 30, 2009    Text size: 

Earlier this week, the tech giant alerted the public about the security breaches in two of its most popular applications. The issue involves a faulty component in IE that happens to interact with many important third-party products, such as Flash, leaving them vulnerable to attack. Apparently the vulnerability is connected to Microsoft's Video ActiveX Control, and specifically linked to a file called msvidctl.dll.

Microsoft has sounded a wide and loud alarm for this security breach, saying in official statements that attackers can exploit the weakness to invade computers with simple drive-by attacks. That means a user would need only view a compromised website to open themselves up to attack

They're calling the patch MS90-034, and based on Microsoft's internal hierarchy, it's rated critical for all users of Internet Explorer, all the way down to version 5.1. In addition, users of Windows 2000, XP or Vista can download and install the patch by running Windows Update.

Security experts also recommend that administrators in charge of Windows Server 2003 and 2008 systems download and install the patch.

The eighth version of Microsoft Internet Explorer was touted as a major improvement over earlier versions, but after the browser's launch last year, the Redmond, Wash.-based company has had to content with one high-profile security breach after another.