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Microsoft warns of virtual machine vulnerability
BOSTON -- Microsoft warned users on Wednesday about two new security vulnerabilities affecting its Microsoft Virtual Machine, Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0 and Microsoft ISA Server 2000 products.
The Microsoft Virtual Machine (VM) contains a critical vulnerability that could allow a remote attacker to gain control of affected machines, according to security bulletin MS03-011. (See http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-011.asp.)
The vulnerability, in code for a VM process called the ByteCode Verifier, could enable an attacker to use illegal sequences of byte codes to bypass security checks in the software, Microsoft said.
The ByteCode Verifier process is responsible for checking code as it is being loaded into the Virtual Machine, the company said.
Attackers could launch an attack using a Java applet embedded in a Web page or HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) format e-mail message. Once compromised, a vulnerable machine could be used to run the attacker's code, though only with the permission of the active user account, Microsoft said.
The Microsoft Virtual Machine is a key component of all supported versions of the Windows operating system, including Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It is also shipped with the Internet Explorer Web browser and other Microsoft software, the company said. Paul Roberts
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