That Microsoft Certificate Is Bogus, Man -- Redmondmag.com

Barney's Blog

That Microsoft Certificate Is Bogus, Man

The Flame virus may not have spread like wildfire, but it packed a little heat, nonetheless. This thing never would have got around at all were it not for fake security certificates purporting to be from Microsoft. Using these, the malware was able to sign on as if it were an actual honest-to-goodness Microsoft product.

It appears the vulnerability is not widespread, is limited to older revs of Terminal Services and only cracks unpatched systems.

Microsoft's advice? Get patched! If you have automatic updates, you are probably already all set. More on this will be learned and perhaps more patch code released next Tuesday.
The Flame virus could be real bad news in the long run as some security folks think it was built with spying and international troublemaking in mind. Like some hunks of malware, this could stick around in various forms for years to come.

Posted by Doug Barney on 06/08/2012 at 1:19 PM

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