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Hacker Shortcut Blocked

A new exploit, the so-called shortcut flaw, is closed as of today -- so long as you download the patch.

Here what this flaw is all about: Hackers use the Windows Shell to distribute nasty code that exploits Windows desktop shortcuts. The biggest problem? One need not to click the shortcut for the malicious code to activate.

Microsoft only releases out-of-band, or non-Patch Tuesday patches in the direst of circumstances, so I'm guessing this is a pretty big deal, especially as Microsoft deems the flaw as ‘critical.' Microsoft noted that it also affects XP SP2, but these users won't be getting a patch; Microsoft ended patch support for XP SP2 on July 13.

Posted by Doug Barney on August 02, 2010


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