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| Macromedia has described the vulnerability as
critical. |
A critical security vulnerability has been discovered in the
Macromedia Flash Player commonly used to enhance 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.
"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," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant for Sophos. "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."
Sophos continues to recommend companies protect their desktops
and servers with automatically updated
anti-virus protection.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.