QuickTime for Windows is no longer supported by Apple and users should uninstall the program immediately. That's the latest warning from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, following a Trend Micro report saying the software is vulnerable to two zero day exploits.
The Windows version of QuickTime 7 has not been updated since January and Apple will not be releasing any security patches to fix the exploits. QuickTime for Mac is unaffected, though it also remains supported by Apple.
Christopher Budd from Trend Micro said users shouldn't hesitate and move to uninstall QuickTime as soon as possible:
"We’re not aware of any active attacks against these vulnerabilities currently. But the only way to protect your Windows systems from potential attacks against these or other vulnerabilities in Apple QuickTime now is to uninstall it."
Apple has not addressed the security issue, however it does note users should write down their QuickTime 7 Pro registration key when uninstalling the software. Curiously, it does not explain for what purpose given the software is now unsupported.
For those unfamiliar with Homeland Security alerts, the department has a dedicated team monitoring online threats named the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT. Two years ago it similarly recommended users not use Internet Explorer until Microsoft issued a security patch.
Source: Department of Homeland Security (US-CERT) via Ars Technica
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