Microsoft has slammed the people responsible for publishing details of the vulnerability that has lead to the creation of the bofra virus.
The software giant, which has yet to release a patch for the flaw, said that the vulnerability was not reported in a responsible fashion.
In a prepared email statement from a Microsoft spokesperson, the company said: "Microsoft is concerned that this new report of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer was not disclosed responsibly, potentially putting computer users at risk. We continue to encourage responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities. "
"We believe the commonly accepted practice of reporting vulnerabilities directly to a vendor serves everyone's best interests, by helping to ensure that customers receive comprehensive, high-quality updates for security vulnerabilities with no exposure to malicious attackers while the patch is being developed."
The bofra virus, which antivirus companies initially believed to be a MyDoom variant, emerged on Monday after the vulnerability it was based on was published last week on a Web chat forum.
On Friday security firm Secunia issued an advisory on the vulnerability, saying that the flaw was 'extremely critical'. Chief technology officer for the company Thomas Kristensen said that 'Ned', the individual who initially found the bug, stumbled across it when testing browsers when using a publicly available tool. The tool crashed IE, so he posted a question on an Internet forum asking others to look at why the program had failed. With some additional research from others in the community, it came to light that the IFRAME flaw was causing the crash.
"Microsoft is right that those who disclose this kind of thing are irresponsible," said Kristensen. "But in this case, it's slightly different because he [Ned] published the first part and they [the other researchers] published the second part. And he didn't do it -- it was done with a tool. If you find a crash in a browser, you might not know if it's serious or not. He might not have been able to test that."
The bofra virus sends out hundreds of emails from an infected machine. The reader on the target machine follows a link sent in the email, which leads to a Web site hosted on the original infected PC. The IE exploit on that Web site turns the computer into another infected machine, and the cycle starts again. All version of the worm also open a back door to the infected computers.
Microsoft has yet to release a patch for the IE vulnerability, but advised users to upgrade to Windows XP SP2, which is apparently unaffected by the flaw.
Talkback
well, aint that just typical. of course MS want people to dislcose these to them first. that way they can hide it from everyone else while taking their time preparing a fix. all while nobody knows any better.
they want it to work in a way where they release fixes before the problems are made public so it will look like they are the ones putting in all the hard work securing their software when in fact it is others.
it's better for everyone if it's made public first, that way MS have to get their a$$es into gear and prepare a fix quickly!!
Microsoft are even more irresponsible for releasing buggy security risk software and charging users a fortune for. Its funny they always chastise everyone except themselves.
It is all very well for Microsoft to want to wait until they have a fix for a flaw before making it public. However, if one person has found the flaw and comes forward to report it to Microsoft, who is to say that somebody less scrupulous hasn't also already discovered it and is planning to exploit it before MS can get a patch out.
I don't care if MS has a patch ready when a weakness is found, I would rather have that information available so that I can protect myself and my customers in the best way possible until a patch *is* released.
Why are Microsoft so willing to put their customers machines and networks at risk for the sake of appearing to be able to respond to threats faster?
If aircraft have a potential problems, then they are grounded or put on restriction until a solution is found.
Everybody knows Microsoft have security problems with their software, and that they are working on improving the situation. Fine. But withholding information (lying by omission) isn't going to help their reputation.
And statements like this don't help inspire confidence in their products. If this one exploit has been discovered and released in a manner that Microsoft don't like, just how many more exploits and security holes are their, that somebody knows about and MS are "dealing" with? 0? 1? a hundred? thousands?
It isn't a comforting thought that you are putting your businesses IT in the hands of a company you can't trust!
How many flaws does MS find by them selves in their own software.
None I suppose.
And I suppose they are not searching either.
However, there are no reasons to use IE at all.
And there are less and less reasons to use Windows.
the fix is called FIREFOX
The "iresponsible" action is that Mircrosoft continues to dump bug ridden poor software with countless security flaws on the world market, and it charges us for the privelage.
A web page called moviepass.tv is offering a three day free trial to see their product, which I did and found it not to my liking. I failed to read the small print saying that if I did not advise before the trial days are over I am under legal obligation to pay for a years subscription. Now I am unable to work on the net withour constant pop ups saying I have to pay-
Is this legal?
To whom should I direct an official complaint?
To Anonymous regarding Moviepass: You can complain to Moviepass although I can assure you their customer service agents will refuse to co-operate but much better is to complain to the Federal Trade Commission. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people have been affected by Moviepass installing itself without knowledge or consent on users computers. The more people report this to the FTC the more likely they are to act quickly against Moviepass. If you go to this webpage... http://profend.com/answers/moviepass you'll see a very obvious link to the FTC but also if you go to the Further Info page there's other organisations you can contact, there's the contact info for Moviepass and other stuff about Moviepass as well.
i'm really getting fed up with moviepass. the time that they say i signed up for the 3 day pass, there was absolutely no-one at home. i want it stopped
Go to the website mentioned in earlier post it has all instructions for removing moviepass.
http://www.profend.com/answers/moviepass.html
I have problems with moviepass.tv i have no
way of paying this people i never even appled
but they keep sending messages i'm looking for away get them of my computer and my
back please help.
I'm low income and i don't have a credit card
or checks and i can not pay by phone
these people do not leave anyone away to cntact them to let them know that can't pay them what they ask of me.
i have been informed that my 3day free trial has expired,as i did not ask for this i dont see how it has expired. now i cant get on my pc. without moviepass.tv keep coming up. how can i get rid of it,or get even?