Still think patching non-Microsoft applications is unimportant? Guess again.
Technology reseller, Channel Reseller, just posted the latest security report (data from Secunia) identifying the most dangerous and most attacked applications and also the most vulnerable operating systems.
The report found that Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively as the most vulnerable third party applications. Mozilla Firefox contained a total of 96 vulnerabilities while Apple’s Safari thus far had 84.
According to the report, both Web browsers outranked Adobe products Reader and Acrobat, which each contained 61 vulnerabilities, as well as Flash Player and AIR, which each contained 51 security flaws.
The most prevalent attack vector during the first 6 months of 2010 was via remote code execution, meaning that hackers could exploit the majority of security flaws remotely with little or no user intervention required. Vendors typically rate vulnerabilities that allow remote code execution attacks with the highest severity rating of “critical.”
The report also points to a decisive upward trend in security vulnerabilities. During the first six months of 2010, researchers have detected 380 vulnerabilities, representing 89 percent of the total number for all of 2009.
And, interestingly, Microsoft does not lead the pack as the most vulnerable “platform”. That honor goes to Apple who is leading with the highest number security vulnerabilities reported. Rounding out the top 10 vulnerable platforms are: Oracle, Microsoft, HP, Adobe System, IBM, VMware, Cisco, Google and Mozilla Organization.
- Nancee Melby, Director of Product Marketing
