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Symantec Antivirus Endangers Users' PC, eEye Report Shows

eEye Digital Security warns of Symantec Antivirus security flaw

Cupertino, California-based Symantec's antivirus has over 200 million users, and each might be at risk of being victim of a security flaw, allowing for system corruption.

Symantec representative Mike Bradshaw, said that the threat is "so new that we don't have any details."

eEye Digital Security Inc's Marc Maiffret said that evidence has been provided to Symantec's security experts:

"People shouldn't panic. There shouldn't be any exploits until a patch is produced."

The security problem seems to focus on Norton Antivirus v10, while the latest security pack from Symantec seems to be immune.

The e-eye site states that "a remotely exploitable vulnerability exists within the Symantec Antivirus program. This flaw does not require any end user interaction for exploitation and can compromise affected systems, allowing for the execution of malicious code with SYSTEM level access."

The affected software includes Symantec Antivirus 10.x and Symantec Client Security 3.x.

eEye Digital Security, is a leading developer of endpoint security and vulnerability management software solutions.

eEye Digital Security contributes to security research and education, having a unique approach to enterprise security - eliminate vulnerabilities, rather than just thwart attacks.

eEye's integrated suite of vulnerability management solutions enable organizations to manage the entire lifecycle of security threats: before, during, and after attacks.

eEye's customers, Citigroup and US Department of Defense, represent the largest deployments of vulnerability assessment and prevention technology in the private and public sector.

eEye protects the networks and digital assets of more than 8,500 corporate and government deployments worldwide, including EDS, Avon, Continental Airlines, Dow Jones, Prudential, University of Miami, Viacom, Vodafone, Warner Music and Wyeth. eEye Digital Security is a privately held, venture-backed firm with headquarters in Orange County, California.

Norton AntiVirus (NAV) is the flagship product of Symantec Corporation and is one of the most widely installed antivirus programs. The current version is Norton AntiVirus 2006. There is also a Corporate Edition version, which is aimed to a centrally-managed corporate environment. It is called Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition, and has different features not present in the traditional retail version of the software.