Symantec antivirus vulnerability exposed

Stan Beer
Friday, 26 May 2006 18:14

Business IT - Security

Heaven help us. We have now reached the point where the world's leading antivirus product may need special security software to protect it from hackers. A serious vulnerability has reportedly been discovered in  Symantec products Symantec Client Security and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition (note: Norton Antivirus is not affected as previously reported) which could enable hackers to gain control of a computer. According to a report from Associated Press, the vulnerability was discovered by security firm eEye Digital Security which has provided the evidence to Symantec.

However, apparently the hundreds of millions of Symantec users need not fear because details of the vulnerability is a closely guarded secret. So Symantec users can either take their chances and do nothing until Symantec provides a patch for the vulnerability, or they can install some eEye anti-intrusion software that will protect their anti-virus product from being hacked.

We can only hope that some clever malware researcher doesn't discover a hole in the anti-intrusion software.

Meanwhile, symantec continues in its quest to prevent Microsoft from bringing Windows Vista to market, touted to be its most secure operating system so far. According to Symantec, parts of Vista are built on technology that it owns. Vista will boast security features that will directly compete with some of Symantec's offerings.