A critical vulnerability in Microsoft's VML (vector markup language) used to produce graphics, that was at first thought to affect only the Internet Explorer browser and Office 2007, which use VML tags, has been found to also affect the Outlook 2003 email client.
It has been confirmed by Microsoft that
Outlook users could be infected by attackers using the VML flaw simply
by opening an HTML exail. This makes the flaw far more serious because
users no longer have to visit a malicious website to be infected.
At first it was thought that emails would be safe because the malware
transmitted by vulnerability required running scripting code, which
Outlook would block. However, it has now come to light that scripts are
not required as code can be embedded in the VML tags themselves.
Until a patch is released Microsoft advises Outlook 2003 users to run their clients in text only mode.
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Stan Beer co-founded iTWire in 2005. With 25 years of experience working in Australian technology media, Beer has published articles in most of the IT publications that have mattered, including the AFR, The Australian, SMH, The Age, as well as a multitude of trade publications.
