According to an
advisory posted on
XDisclose, the "critical" flaw is related to the way that IE processes different HTML tags, such as "img," "script," "embed," "object," "param," "body" and "input."
The bug was discovered by Rajesh Sethumadhavan, a research engineer from India.
"By using the file protocol along with [these]tags, it is possible to access victims’ local files," according to the XDisclose advisory.
The vulnerability exists in IE6 and is possible in other versions of the browser. For success, an attacker must dupe a PC user into visiting a website containing the malicious code, according to the advisory.
A
Microsoft spokesman told SCMagazine.com today that he was trying to confirm the report with researchers from the company’s
Security Response Center.
The revelation came less than a week after Redmond issued a dozen patches addressing 20 vulnerabilities.