Microsoft Patches Windows Media Player

Critical Security Patch Released For Windows Media Player

Microsoft has announced a new collection of updates for today. Some of the problems corrected are considered critical, i.e. they could seriously affect the security or stability of systems.

The first update applies to Microsoft Windows Media Player and is one of those described as critical. In order not to divulge information about this vulnerability, Microsoft has treated it discreetly. For Microsoft Windows there are four updates, one of them critical.

Microsoft has not revealed too much information in this case either. The other two corrections apply to Windows and Office (classified as "important").

The reduced amount of information about these corrections is no doubt part of an attempt to avoid "zero day exploits".

These exploits are generated the same day as the vulnerability appears and so users are unable to update systems in time and could become victims of the exploit.

To avoid this type of threat, computers need to have intelligent protection installed to detect unknown malicious code, such as zero day exploits.

Currently, the danger of these exploits does not lie in actions such as deleting files typically associated with older malicious code. There is now an increasing amount of threats designed to return financial gains at the cost of the unprotected users, either through the installation of adware and spyware or by directly stealing bank details.