An MS Office flaw referred to as CVE-2010-3333, initially found late in 2012, is now allegedly being used again as a tool by cyber criminals.
IT security firm Rapid7 performed an evaluation of the flaw, and concluded that MS Office versions 2003, 2007, 2010 and XP are vulnerable. However, it also explained how the code makes no effort to take advantage of the flaw through MS Outlook. The firm noted:
“The Microsoft Word RTF (Rich Text Format) parser was only used by default in versions of Microsoft Word itself prior to Office 2007. With the release of Office 2007, Microsoft began using the Word RTF parser, by default, to handle rich-text messages within Outlook as well.”
Security tech firm Commtouch said that CVE-2010-3333 is in the spotlight again due to it being so easily subject to exploitation, as well as users failing to apply the necessary update to resolve the issue.
A Commtouch security researcher, Lordian Mosuela, said in his evaluation that the samples of the exploit seen in May take apart the ‘pFragments’ structure in the RFT in a bidt to avoid discovery.
The company said that the answer to the problem is to apply the latest MS Office and Windows updates, as well as to ensure that antivirus elements remain up to date.
Businesses would be well advised to follow this advice to prevent any breaches caused by the flaw. By taking IT security recruitment more seriously and having the right personnel in place to effective manage patching, many companies will save themselves trouble in the long run.
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