Malware: Fighting Malicious Code

ActiveX Controls

JavaScript and VBScript let a Web server send simple scripts to a Web browser. These scripts run inside the browser itself, and are subject to the browser's security model. However, we've just scratched the surface of executable Web content. To get deeper, consider the Microsoft Windows implementation of the Component Object Model (COM), which allows one application to access another application's modules and functionality. For example, COM allows you to copy some cells from an Excel spreadsheet and paste them into Microsoft Word as an embedded, interactive spreadsheet inside a word processing document. Applications can play together using COM in very powerful ways.

An ActiveX control is a special COM object that is designed ...