Security

ZoneAlarm Must Be Updated Now!

The security tool goes vulnerable

By Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

2nd of May 2007, 17:31 GMT

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A recently discovered vulnerability in ZoneAlarm might allow an attacker to cause a Denial of Service attack and obtain higher privileges on an affected computer. The security flaw was

confirmed in version 6.5.737.000 and 6.1.744.001 but other releases might be also affected by the vulnerability. Security company Secunia rated the flaw as "Not Critical" and added that it can be exploited only by the local users.

"Matousec has discovered a vulnerability in ZoneAlarm Pro, which can be exploited by malicious, local users to cause a DoS (Denial of Service). The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the handling of data sent to the "Devicevsdatant" device. This can be exploited to crash a vulnerable system by sending malformed data to the said device," Secunia tried to describe the issue.

At this time, the only solution is to update your ZoneAlarm application to version 7.0.302.000 or later and avoid allowing untrusted users to access the computer.

It's obvious that the security of the computers is an important problem for users and software companies, as more and more applications are vulnerable to attacks and exploits. In the recent period, most types of software tools were affected by security flaws, starting with audio players and ending with image manipulation utilities. Even the applications that were meant to defend our computers were affected by vulnerabilities. For example, some of the most famous antivirus solutions, Kaspersky Antivirus, was recently the subject of several advisories because it could be exploited by malicious users to control an affected system.

However, most of the security companies encourage users to avoid opening untrusted messages, unknown attachments or programs and to restrict the access of malicious persons to the computer. Meanwhile, the hackers are doing their jobs and are continuously looking for new techniques to attack the users' systems.

TAGS:

zonealarm | security | flaw | vulnerability

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