"Microsoft is warning users of a zero-day vulnerability discovered in SQL Server, and that exploits of the flaw have already been published.

The software giant yesterday issued a security advisory outlining a flaw that could allow remote code execution on many versions of SQL Server. The company has not had time to develop a patch, but it is offering some "workarounds" that it says will alleviate the problem.

Although exploits are out on the Internet, "Currently, Microsoft is not aware of active attacks that use this exploit code or of customer impact at this time," the advisory states.

According to one source, the initial exploit was published by the same "researcher" who discovered the flaw. "This is an example of irresponsible disclosure," says Eric Schultze, CTO at Shavlik Technologies. "The person that found that issue took the proper steps to report it to Microsoft. However, they grew impatient with Microsoft and decided to release exploit code before Microsoft announced a patch.

"This so-called security researcher has therefore placed thousands of servers and potentially untold number of persons' personally identifiable information at risk for purposes of their own popularity," Schultze continues."

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