Another Day With My PC

Talk about timing or coincidence. While I was giving a short discourse as to what ActiveX is and the possible dangers that it may bring, Symantec and Microsoft were already giving advisories on the recent spates of malware infection caused by the ActiveX control for the Snapshot Viewer made for Microsoft Access.

Symantec reported that the attacks are being perpetrated through a toolkit that could be used even by novices. The fact that this program is being disseminated on the Internet aggravates the problem.

Microsoft’s security advisory on the matter revealed that the ActiveX trap are set by creating bogus Web sites that seem harmless or legitimate. Upon accessing the infected page, the user would be prompted that an ActiveX control needs to be loaded in order for the site to be displayed properly. Once the malicious ActiveX control is allowed to run, the hacker would then be able to use or access the unsuspecting user’s PC to execute damaging codes or instructions.

Microsoft has yet to release the patch that would cover the problem. Until then, be wary of the Web sites that you visit. If you can’t stop yourself from checking the page, then at least refrain from acting on the ActiveX prompts that you get.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 8:39 am and is filed under PC Security, Malware . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.