The following news has spread rapidly regarding Apple's QuickTime software due to its serious security problems . While Trend Micro was the first to raise the alarm, warning of critical security issues in the program's code, the United States government has now reported the same problems. The software contains a serious vulnerability that could be exploited to attack computers running on it.
The vulnerability arises when a user visits a website or opens multimedia content infected with malicious code. While no infections have been reported due to this vulnerability so far, the high risk it poses has authorities in that country fearing the worst.
We live in an age where cyber-attacks are the order of the day and any security hole can be exploited by hackers with fatal consequences. The fact that companies stop supporting their software is usually a very tempting bait, since there are not few users who remain with unpatched programs and who have security problems in their code.
The same thing happened with Apple and its famous QuickTime media player, whose Microsoft Windows version was discontinued some time ago but still runs on countless computers worldwide under that operating system. A significant security vulnerability was discovered by Trend Micro, which warned of its severity because it could allow attackers to take complete control of the computer.
Although QuickTime is still developed by Apple, the Windows version hasn't received any updates or patches for its code in a long time, and this lack of fixes poses a serious security problem. Therefore, the National Security Agency recommends completely uninstalling this software to avoid the serious risks to data confidentiality, integrity, and availability , as well as the potential damage to system resources .
Although this notice is currently classified as a mere warning , it never hurts to be prepared. On the other hand, OS X users can rest assured that this vulnerability does not affect their systems.