Microsoft recently released a security advisory regarding a vulnerability found in the WebViewFolderIcon ActiveX control (Web View). They’ve also reported that they are already working on a security update scheduled for release on October 10.
Just an overview, Web View is one of two different formats provided by Windows Explorer for viewing file and folder information. This feature allows users to preview documents in a thumbnail view before opening. Additional information such as the title and author is also displayed.
In Web-based attack scenarios, the attacker would have to host a Web site containing a Web page that is used to exploit this vulnerability. The attacker would have no way to force users to visit a malicious Web site and instead he would have to persuade them to visit the Web site, commonly by getting them to click a link that takes the user to the attacker’s Web site containing the malicious web page. Basically, an attacker who can successfully exploit this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
We already posted an article regarding this vulnerability a couple of days ago.