LOS ANGELES, Dec. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Computers running Microsoft Windows XP can be infected by a new Trojan horse, program remotely controlled in a victim's system, even after it is patched with Microsoft's latest Service Pack 2, IT security company Symantec warned Wednesday.

    The program -- dubbed "Phel", an anagram of "Help" -- infects visitors to a malicious website through Internet Explorer's Help controls, Symantec warned in an advisory.

    The Trojan horse exploits a vulnerability, found in October, in how Internet Explorer and Windows XP Service Pack 2 handle helpfiles called from Web pages.

    The flaw is unrelated to the recent help-file flaws discovered by a Chinese security company last week. In that instance, Microsoft took the Chinese security group to task for disclosing the vulnerability without giving the company a chance to develop away to fix the problem.

    A patch is not yet available from Microsoft for the October gap, nor the most recent flaws, but the software giant said its programmers are working on the issue.

    "Microsoft is taking this vulnerability very seriously, and anupdate to correct the vulnerability is currently in development," a Microsoft spokesman told press, "we will release the security update package after complete the development and testing process."

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