(Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. is rushing to fix a security flaw in its Internet Explorer browser that is already being used in "limited, targeted attacks," as antivirus firms and the U.S. government advise switching to alternate products.

To take over a user's personal computer through the browser's vulnerability, a hacker would have to persuade that person to click on a link to view a malicious website, Microsoft said in an advisory.

The Explorer security concerns come just weeks after the public discovery of Heartbleed, a flaw in the design of an encryption tool that runs on as many as two-thirds of all active websites. Some edition ofInternet Explorer runs on 58 percent of all desktop PCs, according NetMarketShare, compared with 18 percent for Google Inc.'s Chrome, the No. 2 browser.

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