Software

h-online: Google has updated the Stable, Beta and Developer Channels of the desktop version of its Chrome browser with a number of bug fixes and improvements. The Stable Channel update closes seven security vulnerabilities, three of them rated High, and includes bug fixes. New stable Chrome versions for iOS and Android have also been released and include minor improvements. The iOS version of the browser now supports Apple’s Passbook application. ...

The h-online: Following the recent Firefox 16 release, Mozilla has now detailed all of the security fixes in the new version of its open source web browser as well as in the Thunderbird news and email client. Version 2.13 of the SeaMonkey “all-in-one internet application suite” has also received fixes. In addition to adding new features, version 16.0 of Firefox closes a total of 14 security holes, 11 of which are rated as “Critical” by the project. ...

BetaNews: Symantec has released brand new versions of its Norton security packages for Windows, Norton Anti-Virus 2013, Norton Internet Security 2013 and Norton 360 2013. It’s the first time all three packages have been updated simultaneously, while the branding has also been amended to remove all references to a date, simply naming each Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Internet Security and Norton 360, respectively. The 2013 versions come with what Symantec describes as “five layers of patented protection”, which include stronger social networking and anti-scam protection. There’s also full, certified support for Windows 8 and the promise of better performance on multi-core CPUs. ...

TheRegister: In an uncommon break with its thrice-annual security update schedule, Oracle has released a patch for three Java 7 security flaws that have recently been targeted by web-based exploits. “Due to the high severity of these vulnerabilities, Oracle recommends that customers apply this Security Alert as soon as possible,” Eric Maurice, the company’s director of software security assurance, said in a blog post published on Thursday. Maurice said that the vulnerabilities patched only affect Java running in browsers, and not standalone desktop Java applications or Java running on servers. According to Oracle’s official advisory on the flaws: ...

Cross-copied from BetaNews: Mozilla has quietly placed major new versions of its open-source, cross-platform web browser and email client onto its download servers ahead of an official release. Firefox 15 FINAL benefits largely from behind-the-scenes performance tweaks, while Thunderbird 15 FINAL introduces a few new features, including a new curvy user interface. Firefox 15 FINAL’s most notable changes are performance-based. There’s faster startup on Windows PCs, plus incremental garbage collection and better management of plugins to prevent memory leaks. Other performance improvements surround WebGL enhancements. ...

MSDN: The August 2012 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer is now available via Windows Update. This security update resolves four privately reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. The most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Internet Explorer 9 on Windows clients and Moderate for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Internet Explorer 9 on Windows servers For more information, see the full bulletin. ...

Adobe wrote: Today, Flash Player 11.3.300.270 for Windows was released to address a crash that was occurring in the Adobe Flash Player Update Service (FlashPlayerUpdateService.exe). There are no other fixes or changes provided with this build. This release is available for Windows only, and affects the Active X and Plug-in installers, uninstaller, and msi’s (available on the distribution page.) No other platforms are affected. Please be aware that this release is not available from the Product Download Center (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer) which will continue to provide 11.3.300.268. We realize that this might cause confusion for some users. Due to the severity of this issue, we decided to make this build available immediately to help customers affected by this bug. Due to logistical issues and time constraints, we were unable to update the release on the Product Download Center. The next release of Flash Player will correct this disparity. Please note that unless you have been affected by the FlashPlayerUpdateService.exe crash, both 11.3.300.270 and 11.3.300.268 will be functionally identical. ...

h-online: With the release of Chrome 21, web applications can now directly access the local system’s built-in camera and microphone. Instead of requiring a special plugin, the major stable update to the WebKit-based web browser includes a new HTML5 [getUserMedia](http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/getusermedia/intro/) API – currently a W3C Editor’s Draft – to provide web apps with access to the camera and microphone. For security purposes, users will be prompted to grant apps permission to access the hardware. ...

h-online: The TeamViewer developers have released updates for a potential security vulnerability discovered in the remote access tool. The company recommends that users install the security updates immediately. Versions 5 to 7 of the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux editions of TeamViewer Full and TeamViewer QuickSupport are affected. The flaw does not appear to have been discovered in TeamViewer Host. The company has not offered any details of the vulnerability, but updated editions of the software can be obtained from the TeamViewer Download page. The new version can simply be installed over the previous installation. ...

Google has published a new update to the stable 20.x branch of Chrome to close a number of security holes in the WebKit-based web browser. Version 20.0.1132.57 of Chrome addresses a total of three vulnerabilities, all of which are rated as “high severity” by the company. These include two use-after-free errors in counter handling and in layout height tracking that were discovered by a security researcher by the name of “miaubiz”. As part of its Chromium Security Vulnerability Rewards program, Google paid the researcher, who is number three in the company’s Security Hall of Fame, $1,000 for discovering and reporting each of the holes. A third high-risk problem related to object access with JavaScript in PDFs has also been corrected. As usual, further details about the vulnerabilities are being withheld until “a majority of users are up-to-date with the fix”. Other changes include stability improvements, and updates to the V8 JavaScript engine and the built-in Flash player plug-in. ...

Version 3 of Personal Software Inspector (PSI), Secunia‘s free program updater, has been released with a much simplified user interface, enabling less technically astute users to keep their Windows applications up to date as well. According to Secunia, the automatic updater has also been enhanced. PSI is now able to keep programs from more than 3,000 companies up to date, though, as before, PSI only cares about updates which fix security vulnerabilities. Version 3 also includes additional translations, including German. The software checks the user’s computer for outdated program versions known to contain vulnerabilities and either installs updates or provides links to download them. ...

Adobe has released an updated version of its proprietary Flash Player 11.3 plugin to address a bug that caused Firefox 13 on Windows to crash for some users. The problem is believed to have been related to the recently introduced Protected Mode for the Windows version of Flash Player and the open source web browser; the new mode is designed to isolate the plugin from the rest of the system by running it in its own sandbox. ...

With the release of version 5.63 of Winamp, Nullsoft, a division of AOL Music, has eliminated four critical security vulnerabilities in the media player. Three of these were heap-based buffer overflows in Winamp’s bmp.w5s component that could have been exploited by an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a victim’s system. For an attack to be successful, a user must first open a specially crafted AVI file. It has been confirmed that the vulnerability affects version 5.622; other builds may also be affected. The update also addresses unspecified errors in the in_mod.dll module that could have been used to corrupt memory and could possibly result in arbitrary code being executed. Upgrading to Winamp 5.63, specifically build 3234 (5.6.3.3234), fixes these problems. ...

Norwegian company Opera Software has released Opera 12.00 just a few minutes ago. Opera users who start the browser on their system should see update notifications displayed to them in the next couple of hours. Those who do not want to wait that long can run a manual check for updates with a click on Opera > Help > Check for Updates. The update should then be picked up by the browser and downloaded automatically to the local system. ...

The H-Online: Adobe has announced the release of an update for Flash Player on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android 3.x and 4.x, and within its own AIR runtime. The update addresses several critical vulnerabilities which involve memory corruption, stack overflows, integer overflows, security being bypassed, null dereferencing and binary planting (DLL hijacking). All, except the security bypass, could lead to code execution. The updates also include a number of security enhancements on various platforms. The Windows version of Flash Player now offers a production version of “Flash Player Protected Mode for Firefox” which brings a sandbox to the running of Flash, making it harder for attackers to get at other processes. ...