QuickTime has been something of a standard application for most users due to it being bundled with iTunes. Apple has decided to no longer continue support for QuickTime for Windows which means the current vulnerabilities will not be patched and will leave users vulnerable. These updates (typically called “patches”) are part of what is covered by a company’s support program. These bugs can not only cause the software to not function properly, but more importantly, they can be exploited by malware to gain access to an unsuspecting user’s system.

The reason for this is that while updates can add new features and functionality, most updates are to fix bugs. One piece of advice I regularly give is that people should stay on top of updates. This advice was prompted by the discovery of two vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to remotely take control of systems with QuickTime for Windows installed. Last week the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (known as US-CERT) released an alert advising people to uninstall QuickTime for Windows. This blog post was written by Bruce Snell.

Quicktime installation windows