Yay the 20th post 😀 anyway…

Source- Neowin: & News.com
Microsoft has made available a free software tool to help victims of the worms that hit Windows computers in the past days clean their systems.

The Zotob worm started spreading on Sunday. Since then, the worm, its variants, and other worms that take advantage of the same security flaw have hit Windows computers, especially those running Windows 2000. Systems at ABC, CNN and The New York Times were among those infected.

The cleaning program, released Wednesday, is an updated version of Microsoft’s Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, said Debby Fry Wilson, a director at the company’s Security Response Center. “You click on it and it will tell you if you are infected,” she said. “And if you are, it will clean the worm off your PC.”
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FrSIRT have identified a critical vulnerability with Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP SP1 and SP2.

The problem could be exploited by remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands. The issue is due to a memory corruption error when instantiating the “Msdds.dll” (Microsoft Design Tools Diagram Surface) object as an ActiveX control, which could be exploited by an attacker to take complete control of an affected system via a specially crafted Web page.

Unfortunately for users of Internet Explorer 6 there is 0day Exploit Code readily available for would be hackers to create web pages. This is un-usual and brings into question whether FrSIRT were taking decent measures to ensure Microsoft were aware of this threat.

According to a Microsoft Spokesperson, “Microsoft is aggressively investigating new public reports of a possible vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs. Microsoft is concerned that this new report of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer was not disclosed responsibly, potentially putting computer users at risk.”

The rmoval tool can be found HERE