14 DAY TRIAL // The most popular instant messaging application on the Internet, Yahoo Messenger, is currently assaulted by an impressive number of threats that are attempting to attack users and harm their computers. In fact, Yahoo Messenger has been always one of the most attacked software solutions by the simple fact that it's very popular and that the hackers think that it's easier to find a vulnerable person connected to the network. In the recent time, the Sunnyvale company was quite busy when it came to the instant messenger because it was forced to work on patches and fixes to repair new discovered vulnerabilities.
Yesterday it was one of those days when Yahoo Messenger was vulnerable to attacks, after some users discovered a security flaw in its address book handling. Basically, the latest version of the application can be easily crashed by adding a malicious address book entry into the messenger and move the mouse cursor over it. The exploitation could be done with ease so we urgently needed a patch to fix the vulnerability and remain secure.
In an email statement sent to me today, a Yahoo spokesperson said only that the Sunnyvale company is currently working on the patch and that a fix will be released very soon. "Yahoo! takes security seriously and consistently employs measures tohelp protect our users. Since learning of this issue, we actively worked towards a resolution and a fix was implemented."
So, until the Sunnyvale company manages to repair the vulnerability, you should avoid adding unknown entries into the address book unless you're sure it is not a dangerous element for your application.
As I said, Yahoo's instant messenger was one of the most attacked applications on the Internet. The attackers even tried to launch phishing attacks using Yahoo Messenger by tricking the users to click on a dangerous link requiring them to provide private information and other details.