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Wiz Feinberg


From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
Post  Posted 20 Apr 2016 6:19 am    
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Just when you thought things couldn't get any more cornfusing on the Interwebs, it has. Dig this.

Just a few days ago, CERT, Trend Micro and other major security companies and researchers all recommended that Windows PC users uninstall Apple Quicktime ASAP. This was done after new unpatched vulnerabilities were discovered and reported to Apple, whose response was that Quicktime was going to be deprecated for Windows and was no longer being patched!

Many alerts stated that few people had any actual reason to have Quicktime installed on Windows computers any more, making its deinstallation a non-issue. Many of the people reading the articles probably haven't used that program in forever. Pfft, we uninstalled it! See ya!

But wait, there's more!

Just this morning, Graham Cluley, a major security writer, had the audacity to carry on his research into this matter, and wrote a blog article advising us not to be so quick to uninstall Quicktime! The why's and wherefore's are all explained in both his content and the followup comments he requested.

Apparently, if you uninstall Quicktime for Windows, and IF you have certain programs installed that rely upon it for important functions -- like editing media files in the Creative Cloud, or running Sound Forge, or other A-V programs -- they will break without Quicktime! One commenter reported that iTunes stopped working after he uninstalled Quicktime over the weekend.

What to do?

If you already uninstalled Quicktime, try opening and using any non-Microsoft audio-visual programs you have installed yourself. This includes any video editing programs, especially anything connecting to Adobe's Creative Cloud. This would possibly also include Photoshop CC users. If there is an error due to a missing component, download Quicktime again, from Apple, and secure your PC as best you can.

My guess is that Apple will back down this time and create a patch for the new zero day exploits that are being prepared by the bad guys. This will give Windows and Adobe users a little breathing room while the other companies work up a method of editing, playing or otherwise working with the affected file types specific to Quicktime.

Mac users are not affected by the vulnerabilities in Quicktime for Windows. You will continue to receive updates to the program and can safely use it (until some schmuck figures out how to use it to hack your Mac).

I will publish more about the Quicktime issue once I learn about it (like what QT file types are being exploited (e.g., .mov, .mp4a, etc). In the meantime, keep up to date anti-malware installed and active. Perhaps you could back it up with the new Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, operate as a Standard User rather than Administrator, make sure that UAC is enabled, and browse the web with Firefox or Google Chrome instead of anything from Microsoft.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog
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