A security researcher warned Tuesday of a "critical" flaw in a widely used piece of game software that could let attackers take over vulnerable PCs.
Security company Secunia issued a bulletin warning of the flaw in some versions of the "Unreal" game engine, used by numerous PC games. Most game publishers using the engine have already issued patches, however, to plug the hole.
According to the bulletin, malicious hackers could send a string of junk data to the security tool the Unreal engine uses to verify online game servers. Once the security tool was comprised by such a "buffer overrun," the attacker would be able to execute code at will on the machine.
Games affected by the flaw include five versions of "Unreal," all of which are secured by patches released last week, plus shooting games "Postal 2" and "Deus Ex," also fixed by recent patches.