Microsoft released emergency out-of-band update fixing IE zero day vulnerability

Today Microsoft have released an emergency out-of-band update (2965111) to fix a zero day publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer (Microsoft Security Advisory 2963983). The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using an affected version of Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user.

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6), Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7), Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows clients, and Moderate for Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6), Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7), Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows servers.

More info about the fix here: MS14-021 :Security update for Internet Explorer: May 1, 2014 The advance notification of the update lists Windows XP as among the affected platforms, indicating that it will be among the platforms patched, in spite of its support period ending weeks ago.

Users with Automatic Updates enabled do not have to do anything, although running Windows Update will apply the fix immediately.