Microsoft rushes to fix IE kill-bit bypass attack

IDG News Service - Microsoft has been forced to issue emergency patches for its Windows operating system after researchers discovered a way to bypass a critical security mechanism in the Internet Explorer browser.

During a Wednesday talk at this week's Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, researchers Mark Dowd, Ryan Smith and David Dewey will show a way of bypassing the 'kill-bit' mechanism used to disable buggy ActiveX controls. A video demonstration posted by Smith shows how the researchers were able to bypass the mechanism, which checks for ActiveX controls that are not allowed to run on Windows. They were able to then exploit a buggy ActiveX control in order to run an unauthorized program on a victim's computer.

Although the researchers have not revealed the technical details behind their work, this bug could be a big deal, giving hackers a way of exploiting ActiveX problems that were previously thought to have been mitigated via kill-bits.

"It's huge because then you can execute controls on the box that weren't intended to be executed," said Eric Schultze, chief technology officer with Shavlik Technologies. "So by visiting an evil Web site [criminals] can do anything they want even though I've applied the patch. "

Microsoft commonly issues these kill-bit instructions as a quick way of securing Internet Explorer from attacks that exploit buggy ActiveX software. The Windows Registry assigns ActiveX controls unique numbers, called GUIDs (globally unique identifiers). The kill-bit mechanism blacklists certain GUIDs in the Windows registry so that the components cannot be run.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Microsoft is taking the unusual step of releasing an emergency patch for the bug on Tuesday. Microsoft typically only releases these "out-of-cycle" patches when hackers are exploiting the flaw in real-world attacks. But in this case the details of the flaw are still secret and Microsoft said that the attack is not being used in attacks.

"This must have really scared Microsoft," said Schultze said, speculating on why Microsoft might have issued the out-of-cycle patches.

It may also reflect an awkward public relations problem for Microsoft, which has been working more closely with security researchers in recent years. If Microsoft had asked the researchers to hold off on their talk until the company's next set of regularly scheduled patches -- due August 11 -- the company might have faced backlash for having suppressed the Black Hat research.

Microsoft itself has provided few details on the emergency patches, which are set to be released on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. West coast time.

Late last Friday, the company said it planned to release a critical fix for Internet Explorer as well as a related Visual Studio patch rated "moderate."