What's disappointing is that there is currently not much that users can do to avoid this problem until Microsoft patches the security issues. Since the details and PoC for both the zero-days have already been made publicly available, hackers won't take much time to exploit the flaws in an attempt to target Microsoft users. The newly-disclosed vulnerabilities are similar to the ones Microsoft patched last year in its Internet Explorer (CVE-2018-8351) and Edge browsers (CVE-2018-8545). The Hacker News has independently tested and confirmed both the zero-day vulnerabilities against the latest version of Internet Explorer and Edge running on a fully-patched Windows 10 operating system. Lee has now released proof-of-concept (PoCs) exploits for both issues. Join our webinar and learn how to stop ransomware attacks in their tracks with real-time MFA and service account protection. Learn to Stop Ransomware with Real-Time Protection

The researcher contacted Microsoft and responsibly shared his finding with the company ten months ago, that's almost a year, but the tech giant ignored the issues and did not respond to the disclosure till the date, leaving both the flaws unpatched. 'The issue is within Resource Timing Entries in Microsoft Browsers which inappropriately leak Cross-Origin URLs after redirection,' Lee told The Hacker News in an email.

To successfully exploit these vulnerabilities, all attackers need to do is convince a victim into opening the malicious website, eventually allowing them to steal victim's sensitive data, like login session and cookies, from other sites visited on the same browser. However, the vulnerabilities discovered by 20-year-old security researcher James Lee, who shared the details with The Hacker News, could allow a malicious website to perform universal cross-site scripting (UXSS) attacks against any domain visited using the vulnerable Microsoft's web browsers. In other words, if you visit a website on your web browser, it can only request data from the same origin the site was loaded from, preventing it from making any unauthorized request on your behalf in order to steal your data, from other sites.