Anilrgowda

Microsoft's "cute" animations, like the infamous Office Clippy, have aroused more ire than grateful praise, but they didn't actually do any harm--until now. The part of Windows behind the animated yellow dog helper in Windows search, called Microsoft Agent, gives malicious hackers a route into your PC for spyware or viruses transmitted via a drive-by download.

Agent can also be used by third-party programs for their own help functions. Clippy himself isn't a risk, but a flaw in the Agent ActiveX control that Internet Explorer 6 uses under Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 SP4 means the browser can be overwhelmed by a booby-trapped Agent file (.acf). If you browse a poisoned site that hosts such a file, the ActiveX control will crash, thereby opening the door to an attack program--and you don't need to click on any of the page's content.