In conjunction with the launch of a series of products at MacWorld, Apple has issued a warning regarding a serious security flaw in QuickTime.
The security vulnerability is found in the media player of QuickTime, which operates on both Windows and Mac OS versions. The Cupertino-based company, a subsidiary of Apple in California, stated that attackers could exploit this flaw by tricking users into opening a malicious file, subsequently gaining control of their computers.
Apple has released QuickTime 7.0.4 to address this vulnerability. The flaw has been rated as extremely dangerous by the French Security Incident Response Team.
Despite this, Apple does not classify the severity of the flaw as high. They continue to advise users to never open media files from untrusted sources, as this could potentially expose them to hackers. Similar vulnerabilities have previously been identified in iTunes and QuickTime, with the most recent detections occurring in November and December of 2005.
