Adobe Warns Of Bug In Shockwave Player

There's a critical bug in Adobe's Shockwave Player that affects both Windows and Macintosh PCs. The bug was publicly disclosed earlier this week. According to Adobe, the bug "could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system."

In the security advisory, Adobe said that it considers the issue critical and is working on a patch. The company hasn't disclosed any details as to when the patch will be available. So far, there are no known reports of attacks that have taken advantage of the bug.

"Hundreds of millions of computers with Internet connectivity have Shockwave installed, so, this will obviously be an attractive target for attackers," security vendor Symantec said Thursday in an e-mailed statement to Computer World.

If attacks should become a problem before a patch is released, users can disable Shockwave in their Web browsers to avoid issues.