The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued an alert on Thursday, which recommends Windows users who still have Apple’s QuickTime for Windows on their machines uninstall the software. Apple is ending support for the app, and there are new newly discovered vulnerabilities in the app that will not be patched.
Computers running QuickTime for Windows will continue to work after support ends. However, using unsupported software may increase the risks from viruses and other security threats. Potential negative consequences include loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data, as well as damage to system resources or business assets. The only mitigation available is to uninstall QuickTime for Windows.
The alert references a report from Trend Micro that discusses Apple’s plans to drop support for the software, with no plans to issue any future updates for the app. Trend Micro also lists to new critical zero-day vulnerabilities that affect QuickTime for Windows, spurring the call for users to uninstall the software.
Second, our Zero Day Initiative has just released two advisories ZDI-16-241 and ZDI-16-242 detailing two new, critical vulnerabilities affecting QuickTime for Windows. These advisories are being released in accordance with the Zero Day Initiative’s Disclosure Policy for when a vendor does not issue a security patch for a disclosed vulnerability. And because Apple is no longer providing security updates for QuickTime on Windows, these vulnerabilities are never going to be patched.
We’re not aware of any active attacks against these vulnerabilities currently. But the only way to protect your Windows systems from potential attacks against these or other vulnerabilities in Apple QuickTime now is to uninstall it. In this regard, QuickTime for Windows now joins Microsoft Windows XP and Oracle Java 6 as software that is no longer being updated to fix vulnerabilities and subject to ever increasing risk as more and more unpatched vulnerabilities are found affecting it.
Apple has made available a support document listing the steps to take to uninstall QuickTime for Windows. The steps are listed below for our readers’ convenience:
How to uninstall
Uninstall QuickTime 7 from Control Panel, as you would other programs on your PC. When following Microsoft’s instructions for uninstalling programs, choose QuickTime 7 as the program to uninstall.
Or use Windows Search to find “Uninstall QuickTime,” and start the process that way.
