COMMAND

    IE

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    MS Internet Explorer

PROBLEM

    Pauli  Ojanpera  found  following.   Put  37  concatenated  "its:"
    strings as  a target  url and  IE4 crashes  when trying  to handle
    that url..

        <a href="its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:its:.">do not click me</a>


    There has  to be  a valid  path/file name  after the crash string.
    We put "." because such a subdirectory exists in most  directories
    and it  is short.   Its is  some M$  help protocol.   Quick search
    with altavista...

        http://helpware.net/htmlhelp/linktochm.htm

    37 of "its:" caused famous Dr.Watson to show up with  IEXPLORE.exe
    Exception: stack overflow (0xc00000fd), Address:0x702ad96b IE5  on
    NT  SP5.    A  single  its://.   href  is  enough   to  crash   ie
    5.00.2919.63071C (NT 4  SP6a).  On  Win98, the single  one doesn't
    do anything, but the 37 together crash IE (5.00.2919.6307).

SOLUTION

    Netscape doesn't care.  Opera  3.60/NT 4.0 - "The address  type is
    unknown or unsupported"