Another day, another update.. Sounds like a boring story now right? In fact, it can be painstaking because sometimes the internet doesn’t allow you to be more generous and preventive about updating software. However, in case of your favorite VLC Media Player installed on your computer, you should actually get it updated before things get worse.
VideoLAN, the non-profit maker of the popular media player, has recently announced in a security update that users should actually update VLC not for fancy new digital skin or some feature-tweaking but to counter the host of security vulnerabilities that can lead you to some serious trouble, if ignored.
If the malicious third party gets successful then either they will “crash the VLC or an arbitrary [sic] code execution with the privileges of the target user,". While chances are that they can only crash the player in both cases, yet there is still a probability of them extracting out user’s information or execute the code remotely onto your computer screens as well.
However, before you get more worried right away, VideoLAN also explained that the attacker can only exploit this unpatched vulnerability if the user intentionally opens a specially crafted file or stream sent to them by the attacker.
Hence, be more alert about any file from untrusted third parties or accessing untrusted remote sites. Don’t open them and also disable the VLC browser plugins too unless and until the patch is applied.
To update the latest VLC to its latest version, the trick is same for Mac and Windows. All you have to do is open the player, click “VLC” in the upper left corner and then click “Check For Updates”
Time to protect the content you like to watch!
Photo: shutterstock
Read next: How Bluetooth Can Expose You to Cyber Attacks
VideoLAN, the non-profit maker of the popular media player, has recently announced in a security update that users should actually update VLC not for fancy new digital skin or some feature-tweaking but to counter the host of security vulnerabilities that can lead you to some serious trouble, if ignored.
If the malicious third party gets successful then either they will “crash the VLC or an arbitrary [sic] code execution with the privileges of the target user,". While chances are that they can only crash the player in both cases, yet there is still a probability of them extracting out user’s information or execute the code remotely onto your computer screens as well.
However, before you get more worried right away, VideoLAN also explained that the attacker can only exploit this unpatched vulnerability if the user intentionally opens a specially crafted file or stream sent to them by the attacker.
Hence, be more alert about any file from untrusted third parties or accessing untrusted remote sites. Don’t open them and also disable the VLC browser plugins too unless and until the patch is applied.
To update the latest VLC to its latest version, the trick is same for Mac and Windows. All you have to do is open the player, click “VLC” in the upper left corner and then click “Check For Updates”
Time to protect the content you like to watch!
Photo: shutterstock
Read next: How Bluetooth Can Expose You to Cyber Attacks
