Avast antivirus hole patched after public Project Zero slap

Google Project Zero hacker Tavis Ormandy has found a since-patched vulnerability in Avast antivirus that allows attackers to gain remote code execution privileges. Ormandy says the man-in-the-middle diddle Avast uses to conduct encrypted traffic analysis as it hits browsers is insecure, thanks to bad X.509 certificate parsing …

[John Brown (no body)]

the Google Project Zero asset.

Is that like a web site but with extra gravitas?

[Anonymous South African Coward]

It's things like these which invokes nostalgia for the good old days of DOS, Win3.1 and OS/2 - and when antivirus solutions did their job properly.

Maybe it is high time to make something like a Psion Organizer which cannot be hacked that easily.... or, failing that, just fall back to the good old pen/pencil and paper...

Getting my jacket, I'm leaving for the pub!

[JCitizen]

I wondered..

when my favorite AV company would finally slip up!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I wondered..

Avast slipped up a long time ago. I've been using them on and off since the 90's and since a few years ago when they were hijacked by a hedge fund and managed by a former Symantec suit they've most definitely plummeted. I stopped using them entirely about 18 months ago, they've become a dreadful product and company, it's a great pity but it's how it really is, unfortunately.