Security hole found in Microsoft's SQL Server

Microsoft has warned about another critical vulnerability, this time affecting SQL Server.

The company said that it is investigating reports of a vulnerability which allows remote code execution on systems with versions of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2005 Express Edition, 2000 Desktop Engine, 2000 Desktop Engine, and Windows Internal Database (WYukon).

It added that systems with newer versions, such as Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4, 2005 Service Pack 3, and Server 2008, were not affected by this issue.

Exploit code has already been published on the internet for the vulnerability, but Microsoft says that it won't have any affect if workarounds listed in its advisory are followed.

The software giant also said that it was currently unaware of any attacks which were using the exploit code.

The advisory stated: "Upon completion of the investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include providing a solution through a service pack, our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs."

Microsoft stated that the vulnerability could not be exposed anonymously. An attacker would need to authenticate to exploit the vulnerability, or take advantage of a SQL injection vulnerability in a web application that is able to authenticate.

The warning comes only a week after a huge security hole in Internet Explorer was patched up.