Daft list names Firefox, Adobe and VMWare as top threats
Bit9 trolls for publicity
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Vulnerable applications that fail to lend themselves to updating through corporate tools are creating a security gap, according to a ludicrous list from whitelisting firm Bit9.
Bit9's list of "threats in plain sight" names Firefox at the top of a "Dirty Dozen", essentially because it's both popular and has been the subject of critical vulnerabilities over the last year. Firefox and many of the other applications listed, including iTunes and Acrobat, do have auto-updating features, though that's not obvious from what Bit9 says.
True, as the little-known Bit9 suggests, many of these applications are infrequently updated, but to go on to suggest that they are akin to more inappropriate applications such as P2P file sharing programs and the like is a bit much. Throwing VMWare and Symantec into the list is just plain silly. And when Bit9 releases its report in PDF format while implying Acrobat is an "under the radar" security threat, you really have to wonder what's going on.
"Often running outside of the IT department’s knowledge or control, these applications can be difficult to detect; they create data leakage risk in endpoints that are otherwise secure; and cause compliance breaches that can result in costly fines," Bit9 said (our emphasis).
We've emailed the firm challenging it to come up with evidence of any organisation fined for using iTunes or Firefox, no word yet.
Bit9 said its research is designed to "highlight the need for greater visibility and control over organizations’ endpoints, including laptops, PCs servers and Point-of-Sale systems". End-point protection, preventing malware infection and keeping patches up to date on clients, is a key topic in information security but to overplay the significance of users installing Yahoo! on their machines contributes little to the debate.
Bit9's research report (pdf, registration required) list the "Dirty Dozen" applications as below (actually a list of software developers, like Apple and Symantec, not applications at all).
- Mozilla Firefox
- Adobe Flash & Acrobat
- EMC VMware Player, Workstation and other products
- Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
- Apple QuickTime, Safari & iTunes
- Symantec
- Trend Micro
- Citrix Products
- Aurigma, Lycos
- Skype
- Yahoo! Assistant
- Microsoft Windows Live (MSN) Messenger
The list only covers Windows apps popular with consumers (so how does Citrix get in the list?), that had a critical vulnerability over the last year, and rely on end users to update, as explained in Bit9's flame-baiting press release here. ®
COMMENTS
eh reg where is the edit feature
ok it was fulish of me since this could be on any or either platform, I admit I like insulting windows :) since it is trash take it from me
Ahem what OS
Very good report with no mention of the shafter of all Microsoft from the s/w list i presume they mean Firefox running on windows ?
as I have always said its not the software but the underlying OS thats most at fault here. keep on trolling
Automatic nonsense
Hmm, not only to bit9 seem to be scaremongers, they don't even know their facts.
Acrobat, Firefox, the JRE, Quicktime, Safari can all be centrally updated using SMS or whatever.
Citrix and vmware are /not/ consumer products!!!
How many corporate lans allow MSNmesseger or Skype to be installed?
The corporate AV products from Symantec, Trend Micro can certainly be centrally administered - and which corporates are letting users manage their AV solution themselves?
If either of the last two points applies, the company has far far bigger problems than a few possible out of date security patches.
Oh, and Lycos is a website, guys.
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