Apple is urging users to update to a new version of QuickTime that fixes seven security holes from previous versions. Current versions of QuickTime expose Macs and PCs to serious security vulnerabilities, Apple said. Apple warned that QuickTime is vulnerable to an attack via specially crafted movies using the H.264 video codec standard. These files can cause an integer overflow or buffer overflow that can crash the application and allow malicious code execution with the privileges of the user, according to Apple. All users are strongly urged to update.

Tuesday Microsoft released its monthly security patches fixing three flaws in Windows and Office. One of those patches is a fix for Internet Explorer which has now been released for the third time. Last month, eEye Digital Security warned users that the August patch of Internet Explorer had in fact introduced a new critical security bug. Microsoft responded with a “hotfix” repairing the problem. The “hotfix” however did not completely repair the bug. This weeks update did entirely fix the problem. 

 A critical software update recently released by Intel has shown to be faulty and takes up excess memory space. The flaw concerns PROSet version 10.5, which is part of Intels drivers that power the wireless hardware in computers. One of the files is not being released correctly causing it to eat up more and more memory space. Intel said they will be releasing a patch to fix this shortly. It is recommended that all users update as soon as the patch is updated so they are not vulnerable to malicious hackers.

Mozilla has released Firefox 1.5.04 that includes patches for some various security issues that include a fixed for privileged javascript execution.  Users should upgrade to the newest version

The developers of the open source project Joomla have released their new version: Joomla 1.0.9.  They are advising all users of previous versions to upgrade to the new version as it contains some various minor security patches as well as some enhancements.  You can download the latest version of Joomla 1.0.9.

The wordpress community has released WordPress 2.03 that contains a securty path and some bug releases.  They are advising users of earlier versions to upgrade to the new version as soon as possible.

When running any type of software on the internet, it is important to make sure you are running the latest version of the software.  Also remember to do a complete backup of your site before upgrading any software.