Zero-day Internet Explorer flaw to be finally patched by Microsoft on Patch Tuesday

Microsoft is soon expected to finally patch a zero-day vulnerability that has been actively exploited by hackers in targeted attacks.

The CVE-2013-3893 vulnerability is now pretty much available for anyone to be used against anyone.

The flaw, which was originally directed in targeted attacks against installations of Internet Explorer 8 and 9 in Japan and Taiwan – but which could potentially affect all versions of the web browser – was the subject of a temporary “Fix-It” tool last month, but the world has been waiting for a permanent, proper patch to be rolled out.

So it’s good to see that the critical vulnerability is likely to be included amongst those patched in Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday bundle, due on 8th October.

In all, Microsoft is expected to release four “critical” security bulletins, and four rated as “important”. Affected products include Internet Explorer, Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows and Microsoft Office.

As Paul Ducklin at Naked Security notes, even Mac users don’t escape the need for patches – with a fix being rolled out for a remote code execution vulnerability for Office for Mac 2011.

So, be sure to keep your eyes open for when the patches become available – and roll them out across your computers as soon as possible. If you don’t, you run the risk of malicious hackers turning their attention to your network next.

Further preliminary details of this month’s Patch Tuesday fixes are included in an advisory from Microsoft.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity 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 analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.