Beveiligings bedrijf Check Point heeft een zeer gevaarlijke exploit ontdekt in mediaplayer als VLC, Popcorn-Time en Kodi. Want wie gebruikt maakt van ondertiteling add-ons lopen nu gevaar dat hackers hun systeem kunnen over nemen, want door extra code in de ondertitels te stoppen is het mogelijk om deze hack uit te voeren. Hoe en wat kan je hier op de website van Check Point lezen en zien, en dit uitleggen gebeurd op een hele simpele en duidelijke manier. VLC en Kodi werken al aan een oplossing voor dit probleem en de laatst genoemde zal deze week nog een patch uitrollen.

What is it?

Perpetrators use various methods, also referred to as 'attack vectors', to deliver cyberattacks. These attack vectors can be divided into two major categories: Either the attacker persuades the user to visit a malicious website, or he tricks him into running a malicious file on his computer.
Our research reveals a new possible attack vector, using a completely overlooked technique in which the cyberattack is delivered when movie subtitles are loaded by the user's media player. These subtitles repositories are, in practice, treated as a trusted source by the user or media player; our research also reveals that those repositories can be manipulated and be made to award the attacker's malicious subtitles a high score, which results in those specific subtitles being served to the user. This method requires little or no deliberate action on the part of the user, making it all the more dangerous.
Unlike traditional attack vectors, which security firms and users are widely aware of, movie subtitles are perceived as nothing more than benign text files. This means users, Anti-Virus software, and other security solutions vet them without trying to assess their real nature, leaving millions of users exposed to this risk.

What's the effect?

Scope: The total number of the affected users is in the hundreds of millions. Each of the media players found to be vulnerable to date has millions of users, and we believe other media players could be vulnerable to similar attacks as well. VLC has over 170 million downloads of its latest version alone, which was released June 5, 2016. Kodi (XBMC) has reached over 10 million unique users per day, and nearly 40 million unique users each month. No current estimates exist for Popcorn Time usage, but it's safe to assume that the number is likewise in the millions.

Which media players are affected?

To date, we tested and found vulnerabilities in four of the most prominent media players: VLC, Kodi, Popcorn Time and Stremio. We have reason to believe similar vulnerabilities exist in other media players as well. We followed the responsible disclosure guidelines and reported all vulnerabilities and exploits to the developers of the vulnerable media players. Some of the issues were already fixed, while others are still under investigation. To allow the developers more time to address the vulnerabilities, we've decided not to publish any further technical details at this point.