Microsoft spots vulnerabilities in Facebook, Picasa

Microsoft disclosed this week vulnerabilities in social networking site Facebook and Google photo management software Picasa that could compromise affected computers. In separate advisories posted this week, Microsoft said it has worked with Facebook and Google to fix the problems before making them public. "A vulnerability exists in the way that Facebook.com had previously implemented protection against clickjacking attacks. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to circumvent Facebook privacy settings and expose potentially sensitive user information. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of a user’s Facebook.com account and could perform any action on behalf of the user, such as read potentially sensitive data, change data, and delete contacts," Microsoft said in its advisory on Facebook dated July 19. Facebook Inc. has remediated the vulnerability, it added. Microsoft said its research showed that the vulnerability cannot be exploited automatically, with the attacker having to convince the user to click on specially crafted Facebook content. It credited Microsoft's Jesse Ou and Richard Lundeen for discovering the issue and the team at Facebook for working toward a resolution. Meanwhile, Microsoft also disclosed a vulnerability affecting Google Picasa for Windows version 3.6 build 105.61 and earlier. It said the vulnerability lies in the way that Picasa handles certain specially crafted JPEG images. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause Picasa to exit unexpectedly and execute arbitrary code. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user," it said. "If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights," it added. Microsoft Vulnerability Research coordinated with Google Inc. to ensure remediation of the issue. It said the vulnerability cannot be exploited automatically through e-mail, and a user must open an attachment that is sent in an e-mail message. But in a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a Web site that contains an image that is used to exploit this vulnerability. "In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit the Web site and then download the image. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the Web site, download the image, then open it with the affected software. This is typically achieved by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's Web site," Microsoft said. On the other hand, Microsoft noted Google Picasa has an auto-update feature that is enabled by default. "Users who have not disabled this feature are automatically updated to a version that is no longer vulnerable to this issue," it said. Microsoft credited its David Weston for discovering the issue, and the team at Google for working toward a resolution. — TJD, GMA News