Attackers are exploiting an unpatched bug in Adobe System Inc.'s popular Flash Player, security researchers warned today.
The bug, which is in the most up-to-date version of Flash, was reported by researchers at the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center and by others from Symantec Corp.
"Adobe Flash Player is prone to an unspecified remote code-execution vulnerability," Symantec said in a warning posted to its SecurityFocus site. "An attacker may exploit this issue to execute arbitrary code in the context of the affected application. Failed exploit attempts will likely result in denial-of-service conditions.
"Symantec has observed that this issue is being actively exploited in the wild," the company added.
The last serious Flash vulnerability fixed by Adobe was patched last month. That bug was used in late March by a hacker to take down a laptop running Windows Vista and claim a $5,000 prize in a contest sponsored by 3Com Inc.'s TippingPoint security company.
According to Symantec, Flash Player 9.0.124.0 -- the version currently available for download at the Adobe site -- is vulnerable to attack. Flash is used by a huge number of Web sites, including YouTube, to display multimedia content.
Later on Tuesday, Adobe said it is aware of the reports of in-the-wild exploits. "We are working with Symantec to investigate the potential [Flash] vulnerability, and will have an update once we get more information," the company said in a brief entry posted to its security team's blog.