Watching a film with subtitles this weekend? It might contain a surprise hacking that attack your Computer TV or mobile, security firm Check Point’s researcher warned.
All might be unaware that a little subtitle file could hand over full control of your computer to hackers, while you enjoy the movie.
A team of researchers at Check Point has discovered vulnerabilities in four of the most popular media player applications. Hackers can insert malicious codes into the subtitle files.
- VLC - VideoLAN Media Player.
- Kodi - Open-Source Media Software.
- Popcorn Time - Software to watch Movies and TV shows directly.
- Stremio - Video Streaming App for Videos.
Since text-based subtitles for movies and TV shows are created by writers and then uploaded to Internet stores, hackers could also upload malicious text files for same TV shows and movies.
As soon as the media player compiles those subtitle files before displaying the actual subtitles on your screen, the hackers are granted full control of your computer or Smart TV on which you ran those files.
Here is a Proof of hacking via subtitles
How to Protect Your Computer from Hackers?
Check Point has already informed the developers of VLC, Kodi, Popcorn Time and Stremio applications about the recently discovered vulnerabilities.
All of the media players developers have patched their software with latest versions: Stremi 4.0 and VLC 2.2.5 and that has been out in market
So , the advice to user is simple: get the updates and patch up. But it might be wise for media players to look at how they handle subtitles too.