New systems should have all of the patches applied. A bug in two ActiveX controls allows carefully constructed web pages that use these controls to alter or remove any file. ActiveX controls are a component of Internet Explorer but are widely used in other Windows software products including Office. Risk is high. A bug in the Java virtual machine supplied by Microsoft allows a Java applet to override Java security.
Applets can alter or remove any file.
Java applets are included in many web pages. Risk is high. A bug in Microsoft Office '97 and Office 2000 allows a carefully constructed web page or e-mail attachment to take any action such as file removal or modification. Eudora as well as Microsoft's Outlook and Internet Explorer are vulnerable to this bug. Risk is high.