Symantec has observed a number of attacks on PCs using the Windows 2000 operating system that haven’t installed a recent Windows Media Service patch.
According to Tech World, the first attacks were made on Monday with just a small number of infections observed, but the security vendor warned that the code used in these attacks was new and gives hackers root access to a PC.
Although a known rootkit exists for this flaw, the current spate of attacks use a new and previously unknown code. Symantec’s security intelligence manager Joshua Talbot noted that: “Somebody’s done some homework on their own and developed their own exploit.”
Known as patch-based exploits, these types of attack identify loopholes that have been closed in a recent patch, and seek to target users who are slow to implement the update. In this case, the hackers have had a extra time to develop malicious code, as the previous patch failed to properly lock down the vulnerability.
Advertisement
Related Stories
- 'Hackers attempted to extort money' reveals Symantec Feb 8th 2012 at 2:51PM
- Symantec tells users to disable PCAnywhere Jan 27th 2012 at 7:10AM
- Microsoft's Windows revenue down Jan 20th 2012 at 5:53AM
- Gem to acquire Ztorm Jan 6th 2012 at 1:27PM
- Windows hotfix for AMD Bulldozer CPUs Dec 16th 2011 at 7:25AM
- Steam hacked: personal and financial info may be at risk Nov 11th 2011 at 10:52AM
- Microsoft issues fix for critical Windows flaw Nov 4th 2011 at 7:20AM
- Norton 360 v6 public beta launched Oct 11th 2011 at 11:11AM
- Virgin Media launches cloud services Sep 28th 2011 at 4:50PM
- Ingram Micro EMEA announces launch of Channel Transformation Alliance Sep 19th 2011 at 11:22AM
