HTTPS security flaw FREAK plagues Windows too
Windows systems are vulnerable to FREAK, a decade-old bug that was discovered only this week affecting Android and Apple devices.
FREAK — short for Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys — allows hackers to decrypt HTTPS-protected Web traffic between browsers and millions of websites. Microsoft confirmed that Windows could be compromised the same way as Android, BlackBerry, iOS and OS X devices in an advisory published today.
The bug allows attackers to monitor traffic between vulnerable users and servers and inject malicious code which causes them to use a weak encryption key while transmitting data. They can then listen in on the exchange, masquerade as the target website and intercept data to read or modify it.
