Internet Explorer has a major security flaw, but Microsoft can't patch it yet

Following the reveal of a major security flaw in Internet Explorer that is currently being exploited by hackers, Microsoft has confirmed its existence though the software giant has no immediate plans to release a patch to fix it.

The security flaw in the company's legacy browser was first disclosed by a division of Homeland Security called US-CERT, that reports on major security flaws, in a tweet which contained a link to a security advisory concerning the bug. According to the advisory, the vulnerability has already been “detected in exploits in the wild”.

All supported versions of Windows, including Windows 7 which will no longer receive security updates, are affected by the flaw according to Microsoft. The vulnerability concerns how Internet Explorer handles memory and an attacker could leverage the flaw to remotely run malicious code on an affected computer. It also bears a striking resemblance to a similar vulnerability that was recently disclosed by Mozilla.