Recently patched vulnerability may have been used in the wild for over a year.
Threat actors are luring Windows 10 and 11 users to enable remote code execution via an Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability.
According to research from Check Point, this vulnerability has been used in the wild for over one year, potentially impacting millions of users. Known as CVE-2024-38112, a patch was issued by Microsoft yesterday.
The researchers said attackers are using special Windows Internet Shortcut files which, when clicked, would call the retired Internet Explorer (IE) to visit the attacker-controlled URL.
“So, by default, users should not open websites with IE unless the user specifically asks to do so and with the user’s full knowledge,” researchers said.
Malicious .url samples the researcher discovered could be dated back as early as January 2023, suggesting that threat actors have been using the attacking techniques for quite some time.
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Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
