A new exploit against Windows computer users has been found in the wild.  It uses a kind of image known as ”vector graphics“, which may be placed in an email or on a web site. 

Currently these is no patch to correct this exploit.  Microsoft has one in the works and expects to publish it on or before October 19, 2006.

This exploit can allow the attacker can execute code of his choice on your computer.  You can bet that code will not be to your benefit.

• It is advisable to be extra cautions about email from unknown sources, and in particular, HTML email.  Text based email is safer, but may contain links to web sites that use the exploit.  And be extra careful about the web sites you visit.
• It is very important to employ an updated antivirus program and active anti-spyware protection, as well as having a firewall.  All these will go a long way towards protecting the user.

For more information:

Microsoft Security Advisory (925568) – Vulnerability in Vector Markup Language Could Allow Remote Code Execution

We received notice of this exploit from Marc Liron at UpdateXP.com.  His article can be found at:

http://www.updatexp.com Until the patch is issued, Windows users can protect themselves against the flaw by deregistering the vgx.dll.

Microsoft recommends that users click Start, Run, paste the following line into the input box, and click OK:

regsvr32 -u “%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll”

After Microsoft releases a patch for the problem, you can easily reregister the DLL by repeating the procedure without the -u switch:

regsvr32 “%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll”

We recommend users deregister this .dll file ASAP.