Mozilla has confirmed a potentially serious flaw in its open source Firefox browser.
Developer Michal Zalewski, who uncovered the flaw, described it as " seemingly pretty nasty, and apparently easily exploitable".
The vulnerability affects current versions of Firefox for all major PC platforms, according to Zalewski's report.
The use of a certain JavaScript instruction can cause Firefox to crash, allowing an attacker complete access to a system and the ability to run malware remotely. More at Vnunet

Microsoft has admitted its Windows Live Messenger client displayed banner ads for several days punting an application blacklisted as a security risk. Redmond has pulled the ads for Errorsafe, a purported security product labeled by legitimate firms as "scareware" designed to frighten users into buying a product that actually impairs internet safety. Redmond has promised to review its advertisement approval process in order to prevent the problem cropping up again. More at TheReg

A potentially devastating hole in Google Inc.'s prevalent desktop search product could have exposed personal files on users' computers to data thieves. Google fixed the defect within weeks of being informed about it and says it has no evidence the vulnerability was exploited.
The flaw was uncovered late last year by Watchfire Corp, a security-analysis provider.
While the vulnerability exists in roughly 80 percent of web applications, this problem appeared far more extreme "given the sensitive nature of what Google Desktop is doing," said Danny Allan, a researcher at Watchfire. Read on at SMH.Com.au

It's bad enough when crooks exploit bugs to ruin a home computer, but the consequences of a successful attack can be much worse. A substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut, found that out when a computer she was using in her classroom suddenly started showing pornographic pop-up ads to everyone in the class. She now faces up to 40 years in prison after being convicted of willfully showing her students the images. A security expert hired by her defense, however, says he found malicious software on the PC. Read on at PCWorld

Clark School's Cukier Stresses Strong Passwords as Defense Against Harm Are hackers trying to get into your computer right now? And what are they up to? A study by the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering is one of the first to quantify the near-constant rate of hacker attacks of computers with Internet access?every 39 seconds on average?and the non-secure usernames and passwords we use that give attackers more chance of success. The study, conducted by Michel Cukier, Clark School assistant professor of mechanical engineering and affiliate of the Clark School's Center for Risk and Reliability and Institute for Systems Research, profiled the behavior of "brute force" hackers, who use simple software-aided techniques to randomly attack large numbers of computers. The researchers discovered which usernames and passwords are tried most often, and what hackers do when they gain access to a computer.

Here?s a major security issue that might have gotten buried in this week?s patch-release deluge: A critical code execution hole in µTorrent, everyone?s favorite lightweight torrent application.
What?s worse, exploit code that provides instructions on using dirty .torrent files in PC-takeover attacks has been publicly available for several days. Read on at ZdNet

Attackers could change the configuration of home routers using JavaScript code, security researchers at Indiana University and Symantec have discovered. The researchers first published their work in December, but Symantec publicized the findings on Thursday.

The latest versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows and (in the case of Firefox) Unix systems are vulnerable to attacks that could reveal the contents of sensitive files residing on a victim's hard drives.

Apple Inc. has patched a vulnerability in its QuickTime media player that could give a hacker control over a computer.
The problem concerns a buffer overflow that can occur when QuickTime processes a RTSP URL (Real Time Streaming Protocol Uniform Resource Locator), which directs the player to a streaming file and allows a user to play and pause it. A hacker could create a malicious RTSP URL embedded in a Web page that would could open a door for other harmful code to run on a machine, Apple said. The patch comes more than three weeks after researchers who are part of the Month of Apple Bugs (MOAB) project published exploit code. Infosworld has more on this topic.

Finish data security company F-Secure told reporters today that a computer virus called "Storm Worm" was sent to hundreds of thousands of email addresses globally. Knowing how many e-mail users do not blind-copy (BCC) their friends when sending mass e-mails, the numbers could be much higher. According to F-Secure, "Storm Worm" is spreading very quickly. Read on at DailyTech
View Video of the last 24 hours of Virus spreading @ YouTube

Adobe Systems has issued updates to fix security flaws in its Reader and Acrobat software that could allow an attacker to remotely commandeer a computer. The vulnerabilities affect Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat Standard, Professional and Elements versions 7.0.8 and earlier, as well as Adobe Acrobat 3D, Adobe said in its advisory. Secunia rated the Reader flaw as "highly critical." Read on at ZdNet

Symantec's Norton AntiVirus 2007 is the world's most trusted antivirus solution. It removes viruses and security risks automatically; heuristically detects Spyware threats, detects blocks Internet worm attacks, and protects email.

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The second flaw warning in the Month of Apple Bugs project is for a remote code execution issue affecting the cross-platform VLC media player distributed by VideoLAN.

eWeek

A vulnerability in Media Player 9 and 10 can be used by attackers to grab control of a PC, security researchers warned. A malicious .asx-formatted playlist, if opened by an unsuspecting user, could completely compromise the machine.

TechWeb

Sophos is providing support for Microsoft Windows Vista with an updated version of Sophos Anti-Virus; Sophos Anti-Virus version 6.5, available for both Sophos enterprise solutions and Sophos small business solutions. This includes our integrated Host Intrusion Prevention (HIPS) technology: Behavioral Genotype and supports both 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista.

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With Norton Internet Security, you will be able to enjoy your computer with confidence, knowing that viruses and spyware will be either blocked or removed. All kinds of malicious programs will be removed automatically, including the damaging side effects.

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Mozilla's Firefox 2 and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 are vulnerable to a flaw that could allow attackers to steal passwords.

C]net

Maintenance Pack 1 for Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 6.0 includes not only fixes for the main errors identified during the first six months since the product?s official release, but also a number of new features and improvements, which will be described in this overview.

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Users of Microsoft Windows can experience the power and elegance of NOD32's ThreatSense Technology with ease and comfort. Our single optimized engine offers the best protection from viruses, spyware, rootkits, adware, phishing attacks, and more. has the smallest footprint and fastest performance - bar none.

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NOD32 v2.7 Release Candidate 1 (v2.70.12) has been released on November 8. Screenshots under Windows XP Pro x64 and Windows Vista 64bit

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