vulnerable

Adobe has released a patch for a critical Flash Player problem that could let attackers take over people's computers through content viewed in a browser.

The vulnerability affected a file that shipped with Flash Player 9.x and 10.x for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and with Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat 9.x for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix. Adobe said Thursday it fixed the problem in a security advisory, and Adobe's Matt Rozen posted a note on Twitter that directed people to download the patched version from Adobe's Flash download site.

This was no … Read more

Microsoft on Monday warned of a vulnerability in its Video ActiveX Control that could allow an attacker to take control of a PC if the user visits a malicious Web site.

There have been limited attacks exploiting the hole, which affects Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Microsoft said on its Security Response Center blog.

This is the second DirectShow security hole Microsoft has announced in the past few months. The company has yet to provide a security update for a vulnerability announced in May that involves the way DirectX handles QuickTime files.

Since there are no by-design uses for … Read more

A security researcher said on Thursday that he hopes that Apple has a fix later this month for what he believes could be a vulnerability in the iPhone that could allow an attacker to gain control of the device remotely via SMS, according to IDG News Service.

An attacker could exploit a possible weakness in the way iPhones handle SMS (short message service) messages to do things like use GPS to track the phone's location, turn on the microphone for eavesdropping, or take control of the device and add it to a botnet, Charlie Miller, co-author of The Mac … Read more

A new, unpatched vulnerability exists in one of Microsoft's server products, the company warned late Monday.

In a technical bulletin, the company said it is looking into "public reports of a possible vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)."

The company said that a flaw exists in a certain type of Web serving operation.

"An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the way that the WebDAV extension for IIS handles HTTP requests," Microsoft said. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a specially crafted anonymous HTTP request to gain access to a location … Read more

Microsoft will issue a patch on Tuesday to fix a critical vulnerability in PowerPoint that could be the same hole that has been exploited in limited and targeted attacks.

The vulnerability affects Microsoft Office 2000, 2003, 2007 and XP, as well as PowerPoint Viewer and Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats, according to an advance notification released on Thursday.

In a security advisory in early April, Microsoft warned about a vulnerability in PowerPoint that had been targeted by attacks that were tailored and not widespread.

That vulnerability could be exploited by getting a person … Read more

Updated 4:35 p.m. PDT with Adobe saying Windows, Mac and Unix versions of Reader are affected and more details.

Security experts are recommending that people disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader following reports of a vulnerability in the popular portable document format reader on Tuesday.

The vulnerability appears to be due to an error in the "getAnnots()" JavaScript function and exploiting it could allow someone to remotely execute code on the machine, according to an advisory from the US-CERT.

"US-CERT encourages users and administrators to disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader to help mitigate the risk," … Read more

Updated at 11:32 a.m. PST with a summary of the bug fixes.

Mozilla released an update to Firefox 3 on Tuesday that patches 12 security vulnerabilities, four of which it rated as critical.

Firefox 3.0.9, the Web browser's third update this year, fixes two critical vulnerabilities in the Firefox browser engine and two in its JavaScript engine, according to a security advisory posted Tuesday:

Mozilla developers identified and fixed several stability bugs in the browser engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla-based products. Some of these crashes showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances, … Read more

If you worry that the Internet is a scary place full of digital pickpockets and online identity thieves, your fears will be bolstered by the latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report released Tuesday.

The report finds huge increases in the number of security holes in software and the number of Internet threats, particularly attacks in which browsers are hijacked and forced to download malicious programs as people surf the Web.

Even visiting trusted Web sites isn't always safe. Most Web-based attacks target visitors to legitimate Web sites that have been compromised and that either serve up malicious content to … Read more

There have long been concerns over securing the power grid and other critical U.S. infrastructure, but those security issues are mounting. CNET News reporter Elinor Mills explains why.

That, and the headlines of the day, on Friday's CNET News Daily Podcast.

Today's stories:

Service restored in Silicon Valley after fiber cut

IDC: Linux spending set to boom by 21 percent in 2009

Rescue shuttle prepped for trip to launch pad

Just how vulnerable is the electrical grid?

Report: Yahoo, Microsoft CEOs meet face to face

Apple nearing 1 billion apps served… Read more