On Tuesday, October 14, a proof of concept exploit was made public for a vulnerability in SSLv3.0. SSL version 3.0 is a cryptographic protocol that is used by both web servers and clients to encrypt data during transmission. If successful, the exploit could enable a Man-in-the-middle attack that could divulge data intended to be encrypted. Current recommendations include disabling SSLv3.0 in favor of TLS 1.1 and 1.2.
The links below provide details on both the proof of concept exploit and also mitigation recommendations .
Original announcement
https://isc.sans.edu/diary/SSLv3+POODLE+Vulnerability+Official+Release/18827
Recommendations
https://isc.sans.edu/diary/POODLE%3A+Turning+off+SSLv3+for+various+servers+and+client.++/18837
Microsoft advisory