WALTHAM, USA: Bit9, Inc., the pioneer and leader in Enterprise Application Whitelisting, unveiled its annual ranking of popular consumer applications with known security vulnerabilities.
Acording to the report published by Bit9, Open source web browser Mozilla's Firefox has earned the title of the most vulnerable software program running on the Windows platform followed by twelve widely deployed desktop applications.
The list this year expanded to include 12 applications, up from 10 last year, due to the increase in vulnerabilities and the popularity of applications such as Skype and Yahoo! Assistant those are often used by employees within an enterprise.
Top 12 applications with known vulnerabilities include:
- Mozilla Firefox, versions 2.x and 3.x
- Adobe Acrobat, versions 8.1.2 and 8.1.1
- EMC VMware Player,Workstation and other products
- Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
- Apple QuickTime, Safari & iTunes
- Symantec Norton products
- Trend Micro officescan
- Citrix Products
- Aurigma Image Uploader, Lycos FileUploader
- Skype
- Yahoo! Assistant
- Microsoft Windows Live (MSN) Messenger
Each application on the list has the following characteristics:
* Runs on Microsoft Windows.
* Is well-known in the consumer space and frequently downloaded by individuals.
* Is not classified as malicious by enterprise IT organizations or security vendors.
* Relies on the end user, rather than a central IT administrator, to manually patch or upgrade the software to eliminate the vulnerability, if such a patch exists.
* The application cannot be automatically and centrally updated via free Enterprise tools such as Microsoft SMS & WSUS.
"Year after year, we see a growing number of applications within the enterprise creating security vulnerabilities that are easily prevented through better visibility across endpoints, and a more centralized patch-management process," said Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer, Bit9 Inc.
"2008 has been no exception. This year, along with the widely reported huge increase in malware, the number of well-known applications causing security problems for companies has also increased. Our annual ranking now covers 12 applications, up from 10 last year," he added.
