Microsoft will release a software update to Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer designed to protect Web surfers from being lured to Web sites that might contain malicious code, the software giant said Wednesday.

The announcement follows several IE-related security warnings issued by Danish security company Secunia. In December, Secunia alerted the security community to an IE bug that would let hackers display false Web addresses. And on Wednesday, the company posted details of an alleged flaw that could let Web surfers be tricked into downloading malicious files from counterfeit sites reached via such fake addresses.

The newly announced patch will disable a feature that lets people code a username and password directly into a link so that someone clicking the link can easily access the restricted page to which it points. Links coded in this way are not commonly used on the Internet, but some Web developers have built the functionality into certain HTTP sites hosted on corporate intranets to give specific users convenient access to information.

The problem with the feature is that the username/password piece of the URL code is not used to locate the Web page. Attackers can therefore disguise that portion of the URL and trick surfers into thinking that they're going somewhere they're not.

Source: News.Com

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