“Symantec Corp.’s leading antivirus software, which protects some of the world’s largest corporations and U.S. government agencies, suffers from a flaw that lets hackers seize control of computers to steal sensitive data, delete files or implant malicious programs, researchers said Thursday,” Ted Bridis reports for The Associated Press.

“Symantec said it was investigating the issue but could not immediately corroborate the vulnerability. If confirmed, the threat to computer users would be severe because the security software is so widely used, and because no action is required by victims using the latest versions of Norton Antivirus to suffer a crippling attack over the Internet,” Bridis reports. “Symantec has boasted its antivirus products are installed on more than 200 million computers.”

“Researchers from eEye Digital Security Inc. of Aliso Viejo, Calif., discovered the vulnerability and provided evidence to Symantec engineers this week, said eEye’s chief hacking officer, Marc Maiffret. He demonstrated the attack for The Associated Press,” Bridis reports.

Full article here.

eEye Digital Security describes the Symantec flaw: “A remotely exploitable vulnerability exists within the Symantec Antivirus program. This flaw does not require any end user interaction for exploitation and can compromise affected systems, allowing for the execution of malicious code with SYSTEM level access. Severity: High.”

eEye Digital Security Advisory: http://www.eeye.com/html/research/upcoming/20060524.html

MacDailyNews Take: Some of the world’s largest corporations and U.S. government agencies wouldn’t be suffering today if they had picked the superior platform in the first place. They wanted cheap; they got it. As always, Mac users should not purchase Symantec (or McAfee) products. Do not patronize scare-mongering leeches that are in panic mode because Mafiasoft has decided to muscle in on their action.

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