A zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in the Internet Explorer web browser - that is, a vulnerability that was previously unknown to information security experts.

A zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in the Internet Explorer web browser - that is, a vulnerability that was previously unknown to information security experts. This was reported by Cnews with reference to The Verge.

The vulnerability was first discovered by a specialist from France, Eric Romang. He said that users of IE7 and IE8 on computers running Windows XP and Windows 7 are at risk.

Further investigation revealed that a similar vulnerability was present in Internet Explorer 9 in Windows Vista and Windows 7, The Verge reports, citing an online forum for the security technology company Rapid7. Microsoft acknowledged the flaw and warned users about its presence.

Note that in addition to industry publications like The Verge, major news agencies, including Reuters and Associated Press , wrote about the vulnerability . Reuters . reported that hundreds of millions of users are at risk On this occasion, the German Federal Information Security Office recommended that residents of the state use a different browser. McAfee expert Dave Marcus advised switching to Google Chrome.

A computer is infected through a special Flash animation that drops Poison Ivy malware onto the victim’s machine. With its help, attackers gain complete control over the computer. The vulnerability is currently being actively exploited, warns Ars Technica. According to the publication, the hackers behind the attacks are the same ones who are behind a recent series of attacks using a vulnerability in Java.

Microsoft has not yet released a patch. According to The Verge, its release may be delayed until October 9, when the next major Microsoft software update is planned. The corporation reported that Internet Explorer 10 does not have this vulnerability. IE10 will be built into the new version of the operating system - Windows 8 - which is scheduled to launch at the end of October 2012.

Zero-day vulnerability found in Internet Explorer