Macromedia says Flash secure despite reports of bug

SAN FRANCISCO: Macromedia Inc. on Monday said its own tests have shown there

is no risk that its popular Flash multimedia player could allow a computer virus

to be sent to attack the computers of Internet users.

The popular Flash software allows digital artists and Web designers to create

short animated movies and cartoons, which can be downloaded and viewed by

Internet users.

Last week, a software engineer posted a message to a popular security Web

site, Bugtraq (www.securityfocus.com),

claiming that the program could allow a malicious program to be sent down the

pipe to users' PCs.

In response to that report, Macromedia said it conducted extensive testing of

its software last week, but concluded that there is no security loophole.

A security bug in Flash could be devastating due to the software's

near-ubiquity - some 96 per cent of all personal computers accessing the

Internet have some version of Flash installed, according to Macromedia.

Microsoft Corp.'s popular Outlook e-mail program was the instrument for the

whirlwind spread of the Love Bug, which was estimated to have hit 45 million

computers on a single day in May.

Macromedia said a Flash movie could be created to intentionally cause the

software residing on users' PCs to crash, but that no other programs - including

viruses - can be sent to exploit it.

"This is simply a software crash, not a security issue," said Peter

Santangeli, vice president of engineering at San Francisco-based Macromedia.

"Flash is a constrained environment by design," he said.

"You'd never get the (virus) to work."

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.