Microsoft: Critical worm hole could be exploited within 30 days

Listen up, this one is serious.

There is a critical vulnerability in many versions of Windows, which could be exploited to spread a worm automatically between vulnerable computers.

Microsoft has issued a patch, urging owners of vulnerable PCs to fix their computers as a matter of urgency.

The vulnerability lies in a part of Windows called the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and could allow malicious hackers to run code – without the users’ permission. That’s obviously much more serious than a vulnerability which relies upon a user to click on an attachment, or be tricked into running a piece of code.

The security hole affects Windows XP and all versions of Windows released since, including the developer preview of Windows 8.

The nature of the vulnerability, and the fact that it impacts such a wide range of Windows computers, makes it very…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.