14 DAY TRIAL // The popular Yahoo Messenger was again updated, the version 8.1.0.401 bringing several improvements. Although most of them concern the security of the application, and they are quite welcomed as Yahoo Messenger is the most used instant messaging client on the Internet with fans all over the world. Last week, several security companies discovered a highly critical security flaw in the application that could allow an attacker to view and to connect to an affected system. According to the Sunnyvale company, Yahoo Messenger was vulnerable to a malicious HTML file and, once a user visited a website with this infected file, the attacker was able to obtain higher privileges on the affected computer.
"Some impacts of a buffer overflow might include the introduction of executable code, being involuntarily logged out of a Chat and/or Instant Messaging session, and the crash of an application such as Internet Explorer. For this specific security issue, these impacts could only be possible if an attacker is successful in prompting someone to view malicious HTML code, most likely executed by getting a person to visit their web page," Yahoo said in a security notification.
It's obvious that a successful exploitation of the security flaw requires the user's approval so, as long as you refuse to open untrusted or unknown links, you're safe. However, it is recommended to install the update because it eliminates the risk of harming your computer.
Yahoo Messenger is more than a simple instant messaging client because it contains several features that enhance the chatting experience. For example, the emoticons, the audibles, the IMVironments as well as the games and the file transfer support, make Yahoo Messenger one of the most popular instant messaging software solutions on the Internet.
As usual, you can take the latest version of Yahoo Messenger straight from Softpedia for free using this link.