Exploit

Summary

A program or technique that takes advantage of a vulnerability to remotely access or attack a program, computer or server.

Disinfection & Removal

Vulnerability Protection

The vulnerabilities leveraged by the exploits are usually application or platform specific; in other words, a specific program (or even a specific version of a particular program) must be installed on the machine in order for the exploit to be effective.

To prevent exploitation of such vulnerabilities, please refer to the application vendor for the latest updates and additional advice.

Disinfection

Allow F-Secure Anti-Virus to disinfect the relevant files.

For more general information on disinfection, please see Removal Instructions.

Manually Clearing Temporary or Cache Folders

In some cases, an infected file, or archive file containing infected files, is detected inside a temporary or cache folder. For instructions on dealing with such an infection, see:

• Support Community Article 11655: Cleaning your computer after infection

Technical Details

When searching our Virus Descriptions database for a specific program (e.g., Exploit:W32/Example.A), you may be directed to this page if the overview below sufficiently describes the program.

Alternatively, you may be directed to this page if no description matching that specific query is currently available. You can submit a sample of the suspect file to our Response Lab for further analysis via:

• Sample Analysis System

About Exploits

In computer security terms, an exploit is an object - a program, a section of code, even a string of characters - that takes advantage of a vulnerability in a program or operating system to perform various actions. An exploit is almost always used in a malicious context.

If successfully used, exploits can provide an attacker with a wide range of possible actions, from viewing data on a restricted-user database to almost complete control of a compromised system.

For examples of exploits on various platfoms, see the following:

• Exploit:Java/Blackhole
• Exploit:JS/Pidief
• Exploit:W32/Ani.C
• Exploit:HTML/IESlice.BK
• Exploit:SymbOS/SMSCurse.A

Note that some exploit detection names indicate the vulnerability involved, such as:

• Exploit.Java.CVE-2012-0507

Where 'CVE-2012-0507' is the name used by the CVE - Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) organization to identify the specific vulnerability targeted by the exploit.

More

Further information on the most common vulnerabilities found in most programs may be found at:

• Vulnerability Protection: Microsoft and Adobe