RealPlayer Zero-Day Exploitation in Progress
Posted By: Arcane ElitistSymantec Corporation has issued a warning regarding a zero-day vulnerability in RealPlayer which makes computers with Windows and Internet Explorer susceptible to exploitation by malicious users. With RealPlayer’s installation comes an Active X control which is where the flaw making the aforementioned exploitation possible exists. This is also why only users of Windows and Internet Explorer are affected by this vulnerability, as third party browsers, such as Opera and Firefox, do not make use of Active X. For more information concerning this vulnerability, please see the proceeding links as they will be updated as more information becomes available.
- RealPlayer ierpplug.dll ActiveX Control Playlist Name Stack Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
- Attacks exploiting RealPlayer zero-day in progress
At the time of this post, it is recommended that users of RealPlayer either disable the afflicted Active X control or uninstall RealPlayer all together. This vulnerability is bad enough that NASA, according to a blog post by has purportedly banned, has banned the use of Internet Explorer.
In general, it is better to use a third party browser, such as Firefox or Opera, as they tend to be more secure and are often patched quicker than Internet Explorer.
