Alert! New security attack via Java applet Microsoft Corp. has identified a serious vulnerability associated with the Microsoft Virtual Machine.

Simply viewing a GIFAR won't infect a system; the attack method requires that the user be linked to the hybridized infection from an appropriately malicious web site.

Microsoft has warned of three flaws affecting its software, the most serious of which would allow an attacker to gain full control of a PC using Java applets.

In 2010, a similar Java-applet-based social engineering attack capable of executing malicious code on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux computers, was used to distribute the Boonana Trojan program.

In 2010, a similar Java-applet-based social engineering attack capable of executing malicious code on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux computers, was used to distribute the Boonana Trojan program.