Real Player question

Have a look here and follow the mentioned link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28308.html

Mikey52-

Here are a couple of articles about this problem.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28308.html

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/biztech/11/27/techweb.security.hole/


I am going to move this thread to the "Internet" Forum. It will also remain where you originally posted it!

Thanks walter, Letty told me about it but wasn't sure whether or not to delete it or not.

Yes there is a glitch and it's one that can allow a hacker to take control of your computer.

But worse glitches exist for:

All operating systems.

All mail readers.

And just about every other program.

So I'd not worry about it too much. Patch it when you can but it's about as dangerous as using Outlook or Windows.

I don't like Real because it's bloatware, but the danger is not that big.

Thank you as well Phoenix. I should have put it there in the first place. Still navigating here.

BTW, I'd not delete it just because of this.

edit:

Here is the patch for this hole:

http://service.real.com/help/faq/security/bufferoverrun_player.html

Hi Craven. Wonder if that's why this thing crashed a couple of days ago. Food for thought.

Craven- While we are on the subject- I have Real Player. At one time I wanted to download Windows Media Player 6. I was very careful to assign only windows Media Player files to the Windows Media Player. Anyhow, when they were both on my computer, I would have crashes and freezes practically whenever I tried to play an audio file. When I removed Media Player, it stopped.

The only problem is that some files can only be played by Windows Media Player. When I happen upon one of them, my computer crashes. Any advice?

mikey,

Even while not knowing much about your computer I'm 100% sure that this hole was not responsible for crashing your computer.

This glitch has been discovered but the attack has not been implemented once anywhere in the world (as far as Real networks and hacker networks know).

For this glitch to have caused any damage to your computer you would have to be one of the first people on earth to have come acrosss a download of a special rm file and it would have to have succeed in a very tricky buffer overrun exploit.

Holes to worry about are in Windows, Browsers and Mail Readers.

Now after having said so much to downplay this exaggerated threat I'd like to say that I detest Real player with a passion and don't ever leave an installed copy on my computer. It's bloatware (bloated code full of useless "features" that have nothing to do with what you need it for).

phoenix,

My advice is to uninstall real player, install the new Media Player and then if you really feel the need to have real you should make Real player the last resort and not Media Player.

They fight like little toddlers over file type assotiations and Media Player is far superior in every way to real player (which is only good for it's premium content and nothing else).

I personally keep a real player install file on hand and install and then uninstall real if I ever have to use it.

Took your advice Craven and deleted it. I've had the same problems as Phoenix. Thanks.

I hope you meant uninstall and not delete (you should never delete a program).

Hmmmm....ignorance is bliss. Uh oh.

To uninstall programs you should go to your control panel and open "add/remove software" and the it will show a list of installed programs that you can uninstall (rarely a program will have no uninstaller and that's a pain).

You might still have the files in your trash bin, you can open it and restore them and then uninstall it.

If you delete the program instead of uninstalling it the program will still have keys in the registry etc.

I just mentioned this 'glitch' to our computer guy, here in our office. He told me that Real Player will stop the AutoCAD (software for structural and civil engineers) program. He said that were must be some file that is shared by both programs. He said that Real Player doesn't even need to be running. Yikes!!

So it would be wise to uninstall and reinstall when they've solved the problem? I often find that iFILM and Atom often run best on RealPlayer.
The "Lord of the Rings" previews last year ran much better on full screen than Quicktime postage stamp size available on the site this year.

No need to uninstall and reinstall as far as I know, just use the patch I liked to earlier in this topic.

Some files (.rm streams) require Real LW, that's the only reason I ever use it.

I recommended to uninstall thing because of the filetype association battles the players wage.

I only used RealPlayer to browse entertainment sites. All media are configured to play on Windows Media Player. But these players are tricky. Not minutes after getting the first warning, a RealPlayer pop-up asked me to make all media types as default to their player. I turned down their transparant advances!

BTW, your avatar appears to be high on mushrooms.