Metasploit releases IE attack, but it's unreliable

Developers of the open-source Metasploit penetration testing toolkit have released code that can compromise Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, but the software is not as reliable as first thought.

The code exploits an Internet Explorer bug that was disclosed last Friday in a proof-of-concept attack posted to the Bugtraq mailing list. That first code was unreliable, but security experts worried that someone would soon develop a better version that would be adopted by cyber-criminals.

The original attack used a "heap-spray" technique to exploit the vulnerability in IE. But for a while Wednesday, it looked as though the Metasploit team had released a more reliable exploit. Computer World