WMF 0-day exploit
There seems to be a 0-day exploit involving WMF (Windows Meta File’s) according to SANS. Here’s their lead-in
Just when we thought that this will be another slow day, a link to a working unpatched exploit in, what looks like Windows Graphics Rendering Engine, has been posted to Bugtraq.
It’s important to realize that ANY link or file that originates from somewhere other than your pc should be considered as a possible route for “bad things” to get into your pc. Image file, document, etc. It doesn’t have to be a program file to be “dangerous” it can simply exploit a vulnerability… in this case it’s a vulnerability with Graphics rendering in Windows that’s previously not been documented. According to SANS it can install a trojan dropper on a fully patched Win XP SP2 machine. The dropper then installs Winhound which is one of the “wolves in sheeps clothing” and will urge you to pay to clean up the infection that it will undoubtedly find.
This appears to affect both Internet Explorer/Firefox – as Explorer automatically opens Windows Picture and fax viewer, Firefox asks if it should open Windows Picture and fax viewer (saying yes and opening in Windows picture and fax viewer triggers the exploit.) It’s possible that DEP (Data Execution Prevention) could prevent the exploit from working. It is unclear if software DEP does, or if only hardware DEP prevents this. Again, any file not originating in the local pc (link’s to files included) should be considered as potentially dangerous… (recall the story of the trojan horse…) Be cautious.