An issue has been reported in Microsoft Outlook which could initiate a file download from a web site, without the user attempting to access the site.

Reportedly this is possible if a user simply reads an HTML email message containing a URL embedded in the IFrame tag. If the URL is pointing to a file, upon the user opening the mail message, Outlook will prompt the user with a download dialog box.

This issue could be used to initiate the download of malicious files, or exploit other known IE issues.