Hole found in Kaspersky anti-virus software

Kaspersky Labs is investigating a reported flaw in its anti-virus software that potentially allows remote attackers to take over a user’s machine.

The flaw has been reported by security researcher Alex Wheeler and the French Security Incident Response Team.

The problem is said to lie in an omission in Kaspersky’s anti-virus signature library, and is likely to affect multiple versions of the company’s business and consumer products.

Third-party suppliers that use Kaspersky’s products in packaged systems could also be affected.

A remote attacker can take over users’ machines by sending a malformed compression file to a vulnerable system via e-mail, using a heap overflow technique.

The Kaspersky anti-virus scanner will accept the message and the user’s machine will become infected without any further user interaction.

Kaspersky says it is looking into the flaw.