Uh-oh. A remote exploit bug in Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 can cause your PC to lock up entirely. I thought the point of modern malware was that you weren’t going to notice it was there?
PC World reports on the bug, which uses a specifically formed IPv6 packet to PCs running Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 and other software that uses the Kaspersky fireweall to make an infected PC completely lock up. There’s no warning screen, there’s no available CPU cycles. All your PC will be generating will be a little heat.
It’s presumably of more worry to anyone running some kind of large-scale mechanical process than the average home PC user, although my inner cynic doubts that too many nuclear power stations are running Kaspersky, except perhaps in home country Russia. Kaspersky is said to be working on a patch to be rolled out to users.
Kaspersky acknowledges a bug that causes a system freeze [PC World]
Image: Bruce Turner