Posted on Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 0:10 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
The Register
reports Microsoft has released a
FixIt Tool for a critical flaw that impacts more than 100 applications from many popular software makers.
The FixIt Tool works only on machines that have already installed the workaround Microsoft published last week. The latest point-and-click release is designed to make the previous workaround easier to use and fine-tune a variety of settings that will ensure compatibility with applications such as Outlook 2002, members of the Microsoft Security Response Center said.
The so-called DLL hijacking threat stems from default behavior when Windows tries to load dynamic link library files used by applications that run on top of the operating system. When the current working directory is set to one controlled by the attacker, it's possible to force the OS to execute a malicious file. More than 100 applications made by Microsoft and third-party software makers have been identified as being vulnerable, including Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, PowerPoint, Opera and drivers for Nvidia graphics hardware.
