On patch Tuesday last week, Microsoft released an update for CVE-2024-38112, which they said was being exploited in the wild. We at the Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) agree with them because that’s what we told them back in May when we detected this exploit in the wild and reported it to Microsoft. However, you may notice that no one from Trend or ZDI was acknowledged by Microsoft. This case has become a microcosm of the problems with coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD) as vendors push for coordinated disclosure from researchers but rarely practice any coordination regarding the fix. This lack of transparency from vendors often leaves researchers who practice CVD with more questions than answers.

Check Point Research recently discovered that threat actors have been using novel (or previously unknown) tricks to lure Windows users for remote code execution. Specifically, the attackers used special Windows Internet Shortcut files (.url extension name), which, when clicked, would call the retired Internet Explorer (IE) to visit the attacker-controlled URL. An additional trick on IE is used to hide the malicious .hta extension name. By opening the URL with IE instead of the modern and much more secure Chrome/Edge browser on Windows, the attacker gained significant advantages in exploiting the victim’s computer, although the computer is running the modern Windows 10/11 operating system.