Microsoft Products and Spyware
Many Microsoft products have been susceptible to spyware for a while. The reason is that many Microsoft products leave users vulnerable through numerous security holes. It seems to be a constant struggle between attackers hacking into computers through Microsoft product vulnerabilities and Microsoft issuing patches to try to minimize the damage done. One of the things that concerns critics is often these security holes of Microsoft products that are susceptible to spyware are announced by third parties, rather than by Microsoft themselves.In April 2005, Microsoft released seven advisories of twenty flaws found in their software. One security hole led to many users being infected by the Sasser worm. The Microsoft product that left users vulnerable to this spyware was Windows. The worm scanned the network for systems, and then sent malware to those systems causing an overflow on LSASS.EXE. At that point, hackers could remotely control the system, telling the systems to download and execute malware that would cause LSASS to crash.
In August of 2005, CNET News.com revealed that Microsoft had released software security warnings for over 22 flaws that could be found in Office Suite, Internet Explorer, and NT Server. Three of those flaws were considered critical, meaning that they left Internet Explorer users open to attack.
The spyware attacks on Microsoft products seem to have taken a turn from the system software a business might use to software that the every average user has on their home computer. In October 2005, Microsoft product Office Suite, one of Microsoft’s most popular lines of software, was said to have its own vulnerability. A buffer overrun in Office 2000, an older version of Office Suite, could give attackers control of a system. Microsoft rated this security hole as highly critical. The problem was in the way the older version of Word handled input when parsing documents. That flaw could expose a user to attack by that user merely opening a crafted document from an attacker.
Internet Explorer seems to be particularly vulnerable to attacks. In June of 2005, the Scob Trojan horse was a mild outbreak of what could have been a very dangerous spyware attack. The virus took advantage of three flaws in Microsoft products that were quickly fixed with updates. However, had these flaws not been identified and updates issued in time, the Trojan, acquired by visiting a web site, would have placed keylogger spyware on a user’s computer to capture confidential data such as credit card numbers and banking information.
In an attempt to redeem themselves, Microsoft recently launched its own version of anti-spyware software called Microsoft AntiSpyware. However, even this software has been under attack. The Troj/BankAsh-A Trojan tries to disable Microsoft AntiSpyware and suppress warning messages. Once the antispyware software is disabled, the Trojan can then steal passwords and online banking information.
Because of the continued attacks on Microsoft products, many users have already started looking elsewhere for software. Feeling both frustrated and vulnerable, many users have already switched from the browser Internet Explorer to Firefox by Mozilla. Until Microsoft can regain the confidence of its users by producing products that are not as vulnerable to spyware, they run the risk of losing customers.
Copyright @2007 THR Computer Solutions: Microsoft Products and Spyware