Trojan-touting miscreants are actively exploiting a flaw in Ichitaro, a word processing package from JustSystems that's widely used in Japan.

Preliminary analysis suggests the flaw means that malware might be installed if users running Ichitaro 2006 on a Japanese version of Windows XP open a malicious .JTD file.

The flaw has already been harnessed to drop the Agent-AIAJ Trojan onto vulnerable systems, Japanese anti-virus firm Trend Micro warns.

Trend notes that the number of targeted attacks on Japanese applications has increased over the last 12 months, as hackers have increasingly turned to language-specific regional attacks. JustSystems released a security update late last week to plug the vulnerability. Users are advised to patch systems sooner rather than later.

The latest attack is far from the first targeting Ichitaro. In August, a malicious Ichitaro file that took advantage of a previous vulnerability to drop a Trojan was spotted in circulation. The first Ichitaro exploit was identified a year before that, Trend Micro notes.

A list of malware targeting Ichitaro, as compiled by Secunia, can be found here. ®

Related stories

• Dutch regulator slaps spyware purveyors with €1m fine (18 December 2007)
• MI5 warns over China hacking menace (3 December 2007)
• Alicia Keys hit by MySpace Trojan hack (9 November 2007)
• Exploit Wednesday follows Patch Tuesday Word update (11 October 2007)
• Trojan planted on US Consulate website (13 September 2007)
• MS anti-Trojan shield fails to protect older Offices (6 June 2007)
• Worm snaffles online gamers' passwords (24 August 2005)