Crashing Internet Exporer

This article at www.theinquirer.net calls this Internet Explorer's dumbest bug - one single line of HTML code that can cause Internet Explorer to crash, and crash hard.

Here's the HTML: 

<html>
<form>
<input type crash>
</form>
</html>

The problem is with the middle line of code; it's a malformed HTML input statement. According to the BugTraq report, feeding this page to anything that uses SHLWAPI.DLL to render web code on a Windows box (programs like Internet Explorer, Outlook, FrontPage, etc) causes the application to explode with errors like this: 

Unhandled exception in iexplore.exe (SHLWAPI.DLL):
0xC0000005: Access Violation

It's not a security risk and it doesn't do any damage; it's just a really, really stupid coding error.

So, then - want to explode your Explorer? Click on the detonate link below and I'll feed you the oddball HTML so that you can see for yourself how it works.

WARNING: If you're using Microsoft software to get online, you may get blown clear off the network when your IE session dies. Also, if you've got a bunch of other browser windows open when you do this, they'll likely die too. I am not responsible for any consequences on your end that result from your clicking this link.

detonate