If you're using a PC these days (wait--still?) then you might want to steer clear of Apple's QuickTime--especially if you haven't updated it since 2001.
A 10-year-old backdoor in Apple's Quicktime media player lets anyone with elite computer hacking skills take over a machine running Windows 7 by running an unused parameter called "_Marshaled-pUnk," which was originally used to draw contents in the current QuickTime window without having to open up a new one. Though this function no longer exists, that line of code was never deleted, which left it open and vulnerable for tricky types.
It's pretty interesting to think that Apple hasn't removed a decade-old line of code and that PC users are getting the brunt of it. Either it's a really good case for using Apple-branded products with Apple Software, or that using a PC is just as dangerous as breathing while you're riding a crowded bus--the chance for infection is always there.
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haam
August 31, 2010 at 7:13am
"Either it's a really good case for using Apple-branded products with Apple Software, or that using a PC is just as dangerous as breathing while you're riding a crowded bus--the chance for infection is always there."
OR, it's a good call that Apple should just clean up their decade old code???? Left that one out, eh?
..and who names these parameters? "_Marshaled-pUnk" that sounds like it's just LOOKING to be a back door hack reference.
