Cursor can take down Vista

Security experts at McAfee Avert Labs said on Tuesday that Windows Vista could be taken down with just a file of a mouse cursor. The operating system will then fall into a state of "hang up - restart - hang".

Not only confirms the information that McAfee's security experts also released a video that clearly demonstrates the ability to exploit. This is considered the "most funny security error" in Windows Vista.

In fact, this is a buffer overflow error in the operating system. It is not a new error. EEye's security experts have detected this error since January 2005.

At that time, Microsoft also confirmed that this error exists on many different versions of Windows (see list below). However, the software company claims Windows XP SP1 does not make this mistake.

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
• Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
• Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003 (Itanium)
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based Systems
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP1 for Itanium-based Systems
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Vista

Until now, the number of attacks by exploiting the above security error is still relatively limited.

Most recently, Avert Labs detected an exploit code that also uses the ".ani" file to attack a wide range of Windows versions - including Windows 2000 SP4, Windows Server 2003 (first version to SP1 version), Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista.

Avert Labs has confirmed so far no exploit code like that attacks Windows XP SP1. Microsoft also acknowledged XP SP2 with an error. This means that Microsoft fixes a bug in XP SP1 and leaves it open in later operating system versions.

The video content of Avert Labs shows that while Vista tried to download a dynamic mouse file, the system reported an error and restarted. This situation continues to repeat itself even when the system has successfully restarted. The user cannot use the operating system anymore.

The Windows input mouse signal processing system is designed with the ability to withstand unexpected incidents. Therefore, when the system is in a hard state, users can still move the mouse. But designing such features sometimes makes Windows Explorer hang and hangs into a constant state of rebooting.

McAfee said this exploit code has been widely distributed on the Internet. Microsoft has warned users not to open attachments with unknown emails.

Hoang Dung