Symantec antivirus software has a flaw

Flaw in Symantec's anti virus products described as high level threat.

Symantec antivirus software is now at the receiving end. A serious flaw has been found in the company's antivirus software, which allows hackers to access a PC without the user having to open anything. The flaw was first discovered by eEye Digital security, which categorized it as a high level threat.

Update: patch released

In a statement, eEye said, "This flaw does not require any end-user interaction for exploitation and can compromise affected systems, allowing for the execution of malicious code with system-level access."

Computer security analysts are saying that this flaw in Symantec's antivirus solutions can be of serious concern. Says Donal Casey, security consultant at Morse," The fact that it allows hackers to remotely take control of a PC without the user opening any attachments or clicking on anything makes this a huge vulnerability."

The Symantec products which are prone to this flaw are Symantec Antivirus 10.x and Symantec Client Security 3.x, said eEye. But Symantec has described the flaw as unverified" and the impact as "undetermined".

Symantec said in a statement, "Norton products do not contain the code affected by this potential vulnerability, and none of the Norton products are affected by this issue".

Symantec said that its teams are in place to investigate the report and that it would provide updates for its products if necessary.