Anatomy of an animated cursor attack

Earlier this week, Microsoft shipped an emergency out-of-band patch to block zero-day attacks against a code execution hole in the way Windows handles animated cursor (.ani) files. This gallery provides a visual look at elements of the hacker attacks, including malicious Web sites, the exploit in action and the adult-themed spam-run linked to the attacks.

Animated cursors are a feature that allows a series of frames to appear at the mouse pointer location instead of a single image. The Animated Cursors feature is designated by the .ani suffix.

Image source: F-Secure.