Skype's Dangerous Exploit: What You Need to Know (Skype for Mac)

[The Straight Story]

Skype's Dangerous Exploit: What You Need to Know

Security researchers revealed a dangerous exploit in Skype for Mac which can be exploited to create a worm that can take control of Mac PCs.This FAQ will help you understand the potential impact of the threat, and what you can do to protect your system.

What is the vulnerability?
PureHacking, an Australian security research firm published a blog post describing a vulnerability and proof of concept exploit affecting Skype for Mac.

Apple wormSecurity researchers claim the Skype for Mac zero-day could easily be a malicious worm.What is the potential risk?
The researchers at PureHacking and the developers at Skype seem to disagree on the scope of the threat. PureHacking claims to have developed a proof-of-concept exploit that allows the attacker to take complete control of the vulnerable Mac system, and states that the flaw is easily wormable and extremely dangerous.

Skype's seems to believe the threat is much more limited. Skype explains that a message from a malicious contact could cause the Skype for Mac software to crash, and stresses that default privacy settings in Skype restrict the impact because you can only received messages from your authorized list of contacts.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/227382/skypes_dangerous_exploit_what_you_need_to_know.html