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WinRAR Fixes a 19 year old Bug That Left Millions of Users Vulnerable

WinRAR Fixes a 19-year-old Bug That Left Millions of Users Vulnerable

By Harpreet Singh | Updated: 22 February 2019 15:41 IST

WinRAR has been a popular file extraction software since the early 2000s

Highlights

Researchers claim WinRAR had a vulnerability since last 19 years
WinRAR has now fixed the bug in a new beta release
Potentially, millions of users could have been affected by the bug

If you've used a Windows PC in the 2000s, chances are that you've used or come across WinRAR. The popular file extraction software boasts of 500 million users. It allows users to extract ZIP and other file archives on their Windows PC. You could even use it without really paying for it. Recently, researchers uncovered a 19-year-old bug that could have affected millions of PCs.

Security researchers at Check Point Research claimed to have discovered a bug that could allow hackers to manipulate WinRAR. The bug allowed hackers to let WinRAR extract a program into a PC's startup folder. After that, the malicious program could run every single time the PC was booted. Researchers say the bug had existed for 19 years.

Check Point Research explained the bug in a detailed blog post on their website. Its researchers claim all someone had to do was rename an ACE archive with a RAR extension. WinACE, the program capable of creating ACE archives, hasn't been updated since 2007.

In a response to Check Point Research, WinRAR has now fixed the bug with a fresh software update. The vulnerability has been patched in the latest version 5.70 beta 1. On Thursday, the company has also released the second beta of version 5.70.

The bug seemed more of a loophole because WinRAR supported ACE archives via a third party tool. WinRAR has now completely dropped support for ACE archives since it's ancient now, and therefore not used any more.

Although there haven't been any reports of hackers exploiting of this vulnerability over the years, but with 500 million users and a bug having existed for 19 years, it seems quite a massive thing. In case you still use WinRAR, make sure you update the software as soon as the fresh stable release is out.

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Further reading: WinRAR

Harpreet Singh

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Harpreet is the community manager at Gadgets 360. He loves all things tech, and can be found hunting for good deals when he is not shopping online. He has written about deals and e-commerce in India for many years, as well as covering social media and breaking technology news. More