Microsoft have confirmed that a vulnerability now exists in Windows 7 that was officially launched just last month. The fix is quite easy in that you just need to block a couple of ports on your firewall to prevent an exploit of the Server Message Block (SMB). As well as causing problems for Windows 7 users, those who use Windows 2008 R2 also have this problem.
The bug is part of a Microsoft built network file and printer sharing protocol and allows hackers to cause Windows to crash when exploited through a denial of service attack.
For a temporary fix you can simply block two TCP ports at the firewall which are 139 and 445.
“Microsoft is aware of public, detailed exploit code that would cause a system to stop functioning or become unreliable,” Dave Forstrom, a spokesman for Microsoft security group, said in an email. “The company is not aware of attacks to exploit the reported vulnerability at this time.”
Microsoft haven’t given a date for a patch to be sorted, but perhaps Tuesday 8th December when the regularly scheduled patches go live would be a good time for them. For now, it seems that there isn’t much risk, although it is always worrying that there is a known risk about.
Via: Computer World
Related Posts
 Apple have now fixed the iPhone's... When booting up Microsoft Windows you...Although we are still waiting for...Microsoft [MSFT] have now released the...Rather than using a pin code,... |
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }