Zero-Day PowerPoint Exploit Surfaces

By Nate Mook | Published July 13, 2006, 4:26 PM

Symantec on Wednesday issued an advisory about a new trojan that takes advantage of an undocumented vulnerability in PowerPoint to infect a victim's computer with a backdoor. The malware, dubbed Trojan.PPDropper.B, uses a malformed string to execute code and modify EXPLORER.EXE.

While Symantec only gives PPDropper.B a risk level of "Very Low," Sunbelt Software CEO Alex Eckelberry notes that the attack looks more intended for corporate espionage than causing widespread damage. The trojan is currently being spread via e-mail, with a subject containing Chinese characters.

Comments

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I got a fever...and the only thing that's gonna cure it is.....

.....more cowbell!

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This is now approaching critical mass. Unlike the previous zero days, there are few workarounds other than blocking them at the gateway.

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i don't know much people use PPT except in the corporate world. Most of the time, they create their out presentation and pass around with their own small team. And again, this require user to open the file from stranger

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Blah blah blah.

More holes in software.

Blah blah blah.

It will never stop so get over it.

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If you're trying to get your account terminated, I'd say you're well on your way. Keep up the good work!

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If you're trying to look like a knownothing idiot, I'd say you're well on your way. Keep up the good work!

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Normally I don't agree with wincement on very much but this time I have to agree. You need to use that brain between you ears for something besides holding up your hair.

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Swiss Cheese will always have holes no matter how much you try and patch it.

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What if I just eat it?

mmmmm swiss.
mmmmm cheese.

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Then GCoder will hunt you down and destroy you. "Swiss Cheese" is their motto.

I sometimes wonder if they keep a single post in a text file somewhere and just paste it in whenever one of these stories pops up.

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Actually, most companies do have a template of some sort for handling outages, technical problems, etc.

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Huh? By "they", I meant GCoder, I prefer "they" over "(s)he".

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oh lol...

I thought it was sort of a random change of subject. Sorry. =p

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Hmm... pretty stealthy of it... once it infects the computer it replaces the bad PPT file with a good one so that it opens and the user is none the wiser...

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