Recent stats show Windows XP still comprising a majority of desktop OSes in use today, despite it having been supplanted by what are generally considered more secure versions of Windows. That continues to offer opportunities for hackers to find exploits in the aging OS, leaving security researchers and Microsoft scrambling to beat them to the punch.
In the most recent example, a security researcher at Google uncovered a previously unknown vulnerability in Windows XP’s Help and Support Center. eSecurity Planet has the story.
Microsoft issued a Security Advisory Thursday afternoon to warn Windows XP users of a serious threat to security caused by the disclosure of a previously unknown flaw in the system’s Help and Support Center.
The flaw was revealed Wednesday night, along with a working exploit showing how to take advantage of it, by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) security researcher Tavis Ormandy, who is no stranger to Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) security team. In January, he revealed a 17-year-old security flaw that he found in virtually all versions of Windows.