Microsoft Releases Out-of-Band Patch for IE

January 22nd, 2010

Microsoft released a rare out-of-band patch Thursday morning. The emergency patch fixes the Internet Explorer zero-day security vulnerability that hackers have used in several high-profile targeted attacks, including the recent Trojan.Hydraq cyberattacks waged against Google and other large U.S. companies.

As Microsoft previously noted, the vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, which make up the bulk of the versions consumers use today. However, it said the only in-the-wild exploit code for this vulnerability detected so far impacts IE 6. Still, Microsoft isn’t taking any chances. Because of in-the-wild exploits and the amount of media and customer attention on this exploit, Microsoft decided it was in customers’ best interests to issue a patch before the next Patch Tuesday on Feb. 9.

Read the rest of my story on TopTech News.

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