Apple stops patching QuickTime for Windows despite 2 active vulnerabilities

Security firm urges Windows users to uninstall media player.

by Dan Goodin -

Ars Technica | Apr 14, 2016 4:30pm PDT

If your Windows computer is running Apple's QuickTime media player, now
   would be a good time to uninstall it.

The Windows app hasn't received an update since January, and security
   researchers from Trend Micro said it won't receive any security fixes in
   the future. In a blog post published Thursday, the researchers went on to
   say they know of at least two reliable QuickTime vulnerabilities that
   threaten Windows users who still have the program installed.

"We re not aware of any active attacks against these vulnerabilities
   currently," they wrote. "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."

The retirement of QuickTime for Windows has been in the planning stages for
   at least a few months, and possibly much longer. Apple has never
   supported QuickTime for Windows 8 or 10, although some users found ways
   to work around the restriction. What's more, the January update removed
   the browser plugin for QuickTime, making it impossible for video on
   websites to seamlessly play in a user's browser. As a result, there's
   little chance QuickTime vulnerabilities could be harnessed into a
   drive-by download exploit. Instead, exploits would have to rely on social
   engineering that convinces a user to download a video and open it in
   QuickTime.

Even so, Apple officials should have shown the courtesy to tell Windows
   users QuickTime was no longer receiving security updates, rather than
   leaving it to Trend Micro. At least Apple's website provides removal
   instructions here. A fun fact from the Microsoft antitrust trial in 1998:
   A year earlier, during some of Apple's darkest moments as a viable
   company, a Microsoft official allegedly attempted to force it to abandon
   QuickTime so Microsoft could have the media playback market to itself.
   "'Are you asking us to knife the baby?'" then Apple senior VP Avadis
   Tevanian Jr said during dramatic testimony, quoting a fellow Apple
   executive who attended the meeting. "'Yes, we want you to knife the
   baby.'" Teveanian continued, in an alleged paraphrase of Microsoft
   official Christopher Phillips. "It was very clear."

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