Vulnerabilities

Last month, when Google researcher Tavis Ormandy released details on a critical Help and Support Center vulnerability that exposed Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users to malicious hacker attacks, Microsoft was publicly unhappy with the decision.

Oracle will release on Tuesday 59 patches to fix security weaknesses
affecting hundreds of products, according to a notice on its website. Read the full article. [Info World]

Unless thousands of companies still using Windows XP SP2 computers
suddenly stop procrastinating, hackers are going to be in seventh heaven come July 13. Read the full article. [The Last Watchdog]

A new report shows that the number of reported vulnerabilities in major commercial software products is accelerating, and that Apple’s products now have more vulnerabilities than those of any other major vendor. Perhaps more importantly, though, is the fact that third-party applications now account for the vast majority of flaws on most computers.

The number of vulnerabilities in the first half of 2010 was close to the
number recorded in the whole of 2009. Read the full article. [The Register]

FBI agents have raided the homes of three alleged members of a hacker
gang that harassed a security expert who helped put the group’s leader
in jail, according to a recently unsealed search warrant affidavit. Read the full article. [Wired]

Microsoft on Friday said that a weakness in Internet Explorer 8 identified by security researcher Ruben Santamarta recently is not an exploitable vulnerability, but rather a “technique for bypassing ASLR.”