Security
New zero-day vulnerability in Windows XP
A new zero-day vulnerability involving Windows XP reported today. This flaw could potentially allow a system to be remotely compromised.
The culprit in this instance involves the implementation of the “FindFile()” in the mfc42.dll and mfc42u.dll files bundled with the operating system. These files are still likely to be linked to by older applications.
The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error in the “FindFile()” function of the CFileFind class in mfc42.dll and mfc42u.dll. This can be exploited to cause a heap-based buffer overflow by passing an overly long argument to the affected function.
Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code.
No patches have been announced for this vulnerability yet. It is recommended for applications using this vulnerable library to first check the length of the user input before passing it to the affected function.
