RealNetworks has released a security patch for its media
player to stop hackers running their own code on users’ machines
via a buffer overflow attack.
The flaw has been classed as “highly critical” by security
research company Secunia, and affects most recent versions of
RealNetworks’ Real Player software for Windows and the Mac.
RealNetworks said it hadn’t so far received any reports of the
security flaw leading to any attacks on users’ machines.
The European Commission has ordered Microsoft to launch a
European version of Windows XP without the Windows Media Player
console.
The move is designed to give companies like RealNetworks a
better chance of carving out a decent portion of the media player
market, and is part of last year’s competition settlement with
Microsoft.
Microsoft itself has recently released patches to close security
holes in Windows Media Player.
