Security Updates To Mozilla Products

Mozilla has released updates to Firefox and Seamonkey browsers and Thunderbird email client to address a bunch of vulnerabilities of which several categorized as critical.

Affected products are: - Mozilla Thunderbird earlier than 9.0 - Mozilla SeaMonkey earlier than 2.6 - Mozilla Firefox earlier than 9.0

Links to the security advisories with details about addressed security issues:
MFSA 2011-59 .jar not treated as executable in Firefox 3.6 on Mac
MFSA 2011-58 Crash scaling video element to extreme sizes
MFSA 2011-57 Crash when plugin removes itself on Mac OS X
MFSA 2011-56 Key detection without JavaScript via SVG animation
MFSA 2011-55 nsSVGValue out-of-bounds access
MFSA 2011-54 Potentially exploitable crash in the YARR regular expression library
MFSA 2011-53 Miscellaneous memory safety hazards (rv:9.0)


Fresh versions can be obtained via inbuilt updater or by downloading from the product site: Firefox Thunderbird SeaMonkey

Updates For Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x Windows Versions

Adobe has released updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x series Windows versions. New version patches earlier informed vulnerability (CVE-2011-2462) and also other vulnerability (CVE-2011-4369). Both may allow an attacker to take control of the vulnerable system.

Above mentioned vulnerabilities exist also in Adobe Reader X and Adobe Acrobat X versions. However, protection modes built in those prevent exploit of the type currently targeting these two vulnerabilities from executing. Thus, Adobe is planning to address theses issues in their next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat (scheduled for January 10, 2012).

More information in the related security bulletin.

Microsoft Security Updates For December 2011

Microsoft has released security updates for December 2011. This month update contains 13 security bulletins of which three critical and ten important.

A new version of Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) was released too.

More information can be read from the bulletin summary.

For consumer the easist way to get the update is to use Microsoft Update service.

Vulnerabilities In Winamp

There have been found three vulnerabilities in Nullsoft's Winamp media player. Two of these are in the in_avi.dll plugin and one in the in_mod.dll plugin. Successful exploiting may allow executing of arbitrary code in vulnerable system.

Affected versions: Winamp 5.622 but older versions may also be affected

Solution: Users of affected version can download latest version on Winamp download site.

Vulnerability In Foxit Reader

There has been found a vulnerability in Foxit Reader, software for pdf file handling. This issue was caused by the cross-border assignment of an array which may result in memory corruption vulnerabilities.

Affected are Foxit Reader 5.1.0.1021 and earlier versions. Foxit Reader users should update their version to the latest one available either by using "Check for Updates Now" in Reader help menu or by downloading fresh version here (Note: remember to unselect toolbar related options during the installation process unless you really want that installed too). More information here.

Symantec Intelligence Report: November 2011

Symantec has published their Intelligence report that sums up the latest threat trends for November 2011.

Report highlights:
- Spam – 70.5 percent (a decrease of 3.7 percentage points since October 2011)
- Phishing – One in 302.0 emails identified as phishing (an increase of 0.04 percentage points since October 2011)
- Malware – One in 255.8 emails contained malware (a decrease of 0.03 percentage points since October 2011)
- Malicious Web sites – 4,915 Web sites blocked per day (an increase of 47.8 percent since October 2011)
- A Review of Targeted Attacks in 2011
- Revolution of Russian Phone Number Spam
- Best Practices for Enterprises and Users


The report can be viewed here.

Vulnerability in Adobe PDF products

Adobe has released an advisory about a critical vulnerability in Adobe Reader & Adobe Acrobat products. This vulnerability (CVE-2011-2462) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Affected versions:
- Adobe Reader X (10.1.1) and earlier versions
- Adobe Reader 9.4.6 and earlier 9.x versions
- Adobe Acrobat X (10.1.1) and earlier versions

Fix availability:
"We are in the process of finalizing a fix for the issue and expect to make available an update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows no later than the week of December 12, 2011. Because Adobe Reader X Protected Mode and Adobe Acrobat X Protected View would prevent an exploit of this kind from executing, we are currently planning to address this issue in Adobe Reader X and Acrobat X for Windows with the next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat, currently scheduled for January 10, 2012."

Patch For Opera Released

Opera Software has released an update for their Opera web browser. Version 11.60 contains fixes to four security vulnerabilities (of one moderate of these Opera will reveal details later).

moderate:
* Pages can set cookies and communicate cross-site for some top level domains; advisory

low:
* A weakness in the SSL v3.0 and TLS 1.0 specifications can allow eavesdropping attacks against some applications; advisory
* JavaScript "in" operator allows leakage of cross-domain information; advisory


Opera users are strongly recommended to update to 11.60 version. New version can be downloaded here.

ESET Global Threat Report for November 2011

ESET has released a report discussing global threats of November 2011.

TOP 10 threats list (previous ranking listed too):

1. INF/Autorun (1.)
2. Win32/Dorkbot (2.)
3. HTML/ScrInject.B (4.)
4. HTML/Iframe.B (6.)
5. Win32/Conficker (3.)
6. Win32/Autoit (7.)
7. Win32/Sality (5.)
8. Win32/Ramnit (8.)
9. JS/TrojanDownloader.Iframe.NKE (9.)
10. Win32/PSW.OnLineGames (10.)


Complete report (with a description about each of the above listed threats) can be downloaded here (in PDF format).