Microsoft Corporation recently issued a security patch aimed at fixing a critical weakness in their Internet Explorer browser, which is said to have affected a number of 2 million computers so far, along with 10,000 websites.

The „zero day” bug enabled attackers to take control of IE users’ systems by redirecting them to infected websites.

Microsoft’s Christopher Budd urged all Internet Explorer users, which account for 69 percent of all web surfers, to get the update for the browser as soon as possible, adding that the company had requested their security engineering teams throughout the world to come up with a software solution for the flaw within eight days.

Microsoft informed that the patch released comprised over 300 distinct updates for more than six IE versions, available in approximately 50 languages.

Moreover, the company revealed that the flaw had been found only in IE 7 on all the Windows operating system versions, but also stated that both the IE 6 and the beta version of IE 8 were under threat of coming to be exploited by the bug.

Currently, the browser’s users who have automatic updates turned on will be receiving the update within one day, whereas the rest of them could get it through a download.

The AZN Trojan has been spotted ever since the beginning of this month, but the security flaw was only announced the previous week.

In order for a computer to become affected, a user has to access a malicious website with Trojans, while once a web page is opened, malware is installed on the system and starts recording keystrokes and thus steal passwords or financial information.