A vulnerability has been identified in Microsoft Internet Explorer, which could be exploited by remote attackers to gain knowledge of sensitive information. This issue is caused due to the browser failing to prevent local content from being rendered as HTML via the "file://" protocol, which could allow attackers to access files with an already known filename and location on a vulnerable system and e.g. read the contents of the "index.dat", which would allow them to view the cookies files on the system, and possibly other cached content by tricking a user into visiting a specially crafted web page.
Note : The vulnerability only affects browsers that are not running in Protected Mode. This mode is running by default for versions of Internet Explorer on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.
