Serious Internet Explorer Security Flaw Patched

The bug was initially reported mid-January, 2020 and affects Windows 7, Windows 8.x, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2008 and 2012.
The flaw, labelled CVE-2020-0674, is marked with severity ‘Critical’ for Windows 7, 8.x and 10.

Microsoft warns –

An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could take control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.

In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit the vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website, for example, by sending an email.

Microsoft released a series of updates for systems at risk on February 11, 2020 as part of the monthly ‘Patch Tuesday’.

As of January 14, 2020, Windows 7 is no longer supported. This includes the Internet Explorer 11 browser.

We strongly advise using Windows 10 with an alternative browser such as the latest Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, Firefox, or Chrome.