The version of the Microsoft VM that ships with Internet Explorer version 4.x and 5.x contains a flaw affecting how Java requests for proxy resources are handled. A malicious Java applet could exploit this flaw to re-direct web traffic once it has left the proxy server to a destination of the attacker’s choice.
An attacker could use this flaw to send a user’s Internet session to a system of his own control, without the user being aware of this. The attacker could then forward the information on to the intended destination, giving the appearance that the session was behaving normally. The attacker could then send his own malicious response, making it seem to come from the intended destination, or could discard the session information, creating the impression of a denial of service. Additionally, the attacker could capture and save the user’s session information. This could enable him to execute a replay attack or to search for sensitive information such as user names or passwords.
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