New Exploit Lets Malware Attackers Bypass Patch for Critical Microsoft MSHTML Flaw
Dec 22, 2021
A short-lived phishing campaign has been observed taking advantage of a novel exploit that bypassed a patch put in place by Microsoft to fix a remote code execution vulnerability affecting the MSHTML component with the goal of delivering Formbook malware. "The attachments represent an escalation of the attacker's abuse of the CVE-2021-40444 bug and demonstrate that even a patch can't always mitigate the actions of a motivated and sufficiently skilled attacker," SophosLabs researchers Andrew Brandt and Stephen Ormandy said in a new report published Tuesday. CVE-2021-40444 (CVSS score: 8.8) relates to a remote code execution flaw in MSHTML that could be exploited using specially crafted Microsoft Office documents. Although Microsoft addressed the security weakness as part of its September 2021 Patch Tuesday updates , it has been put to use in multiple attacks ever since details pertaining to the flaw became public. That same month, the technology g...
