Microsoft is warning that hackers are using booby-trapped QuickTime media files to exploit a newly discovered security hole in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems. Microsoft said it is aware of “limited attacks” against an unpatched vulnerability in a Windows DirectShow component designed to process QuickTime files. The vulnerability is present in those operating systems and can be exploited whether or not users have QuickTime installed. From a post on the Microsoft’s Security Research & Defense blog: The vulnerability is in the DirectShow platform (quartz.dll). While the vulnerability is NOT in IE or other browsers, a browse-and-get-owned attack vector does exist here via the media playback plug-ins of browsers. The attacker could construct a malicious webpage which uses the media playback plug-ins to playback a malicious QuickTime file to reach the vulnerability in Quartz.dll. Please note this type of attack could happen for any browsers, not IE