Critical vulnerability found in Flash Player
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:12 am
A critical security vulnerability has been discovered in the Macromedia Flash Player commonly used to provide multimedia content on the Internet.
The security hole could allow malicious hackers to run unauthorised code which might allow them to break into innocent users' computers or launch a worm.
The Macromedia Flash Player is commonly found on Windows computers, and is redistributed with Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 and 2, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Millennium Edition.
According to a security advisory published by Macromedia, Flash Player 7.0.19.0 and earlier are vulnerable to the security hole, and it is recommended that users upgrade to Flash Player 8 if possible.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos said,
[i]"Hackers look for vulnerabilities in commonly used software, and write malware to exploit them. This helps them break into innocent people's computers to spy, steal and launch spam attacks. At the moment we have not seen any malware which exploits this particular vulnerability, but experience has shown that attack can happen very quickly after a security hole is identified. It's critical that businesses and home users protect themselves as a matter of priority."[/i]
Macromedia have published full details of the critical vulnerability which can be found [u][b][url=\"http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/security/security_zone/mpsb05-07.html\"]here.[/url][/b][/u]
[u][b][url=\"http://itvibe.com/news/3791/\"][Source][/url][/b][/u]
The security hole could allow malicious hackers to run unauthorised code which might allow them to break into innocent users' computers or launch a worm.
The Macromedia Flash Player is commonly found on Windows computers, and is redistributed with Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 and 2, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Millennium Edition.
According to a security advisory published by Macromedia, Flash Player 7.0.19.0 and earlier are vulnerable to the security hole, and it is recommended that users upgrade to Flash Player 8 if possible.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos said,
[i]"Hackers look for vulnerabilities in commonly used software, and write malware to exploit them. This helps them break into innocent people's computers to spy, steal and launch spam attacks. At the moment we have not seen any malware which exploits this particular vulnerability, but experience has shown that attack can happen very quickly after a security hole is identified. It's critical that businesses and home users protect themselves as a matter of priority."[/i]
Macromedia have published full details of the critical vulnerability which can be found [u][b][url=\"http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/security/security_zone/mpsb05-07.html\"]here.[/url][/b][/u]
[u][b][url=\"http://itvibe.com/news/3791/\"][Source][/url][/b][/u]