QuickTime for Windows Vista now supports ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization), a Windows Vista security technology that randomly arranges the positions of key data areas to prevent malware authors from predicting target addresses. In addition to ASLR, QuickTime for Windows will also do stack buffer safety checking (Visual Studio 2005"s /GS option) and support for hardware NX on Windows Vista.
Security researchers reacted to Apple"s move with applause. "That"s a pretty big change for a point release," said Dino Dai Zovi, a hacker who has written multiple exploits for QuickTime. "They [Apple] have way more guts than many other software companies to do something like that. Either that, or they are afraid of the backlash if malware starts targeting QuickTime and iTunes in a more serious way."