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back to article WinAmp update fades out critical media player flaws

WinAmp users ought to upgrade following the discovery of multiple security vulns affecting the popular media player. Four flaws each involving module decoder plug-ins to the media player can be used to trigger heap-based buffer overflows, a handy mechanism for injecting hostile code onto vulnerable systems. In addition, an …

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  1. Mark Allen

    Try version 5.571 to avoid the installer bugs

    Your article should read: "Install version 5.571" as the initial 5.57 release had a buggy installer for Win Vista.

    (I think this is the version you will now get when following the 5.57 download links.. but worth being sure)

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ahh Winamp

    One of the few programs I've had where the best version is a couple of years behind the latest release.

    I only wrote that so I could ask for a llama icon. (What? We might get more Winamp news in the future!)

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  3. Robert Moore
    Flame

    This is shocking

    I can't believe anyone still uses winamp.

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    1. heyrick Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      I am shocked!

      Hey! I use WinAmp! It is simple, small, to the point, and will play all my audio files (including streaming "radio") without throwing a fit (like WMP over MP3s with long ID3 tags - buffer overflow anyone?) or needing half a dozen different bits of software to do the same thing.

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    2. Duncan Robertson 1
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      Shocking?

      WinAmp is still the best media player around! Always has been and probably always will be. Coupled with DFX as an output plugin, there's no better audio reproduction on a PC for all sorts of formats.

      Just my tuppence!

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Erm, if you're using DFX

        It's not really "reproduction", more just just playout.. you're mangling an already lossy signal quite badly.

        Best of all is when people use "stream rippers" to record stuff- yer radio station plays out mpeg compressed (typically) content, into Optimod processing, which then gets recompressed for streaming, and then uncompressed, recompressed and written to disk on the client end, cascade code artifacts ahoy!

        Of course, most people will rhapsodise about the "fidelity" if you just boost the high and low end somewhat, even if it sounds very little like the original.

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    3. Les Matthew
      Reply Icon

      I haven't used winamp in years

      http://www.vuplayer.com/vuplayer.php

      has filled my needs.

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  4. Pink Duck
    Thumb Up

    An update that...

    ...shows a new, empty 'Jump to File' dialog window for me on start-up every now and then :)

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Is one of the fixed critical flaws...

    ...its taking 15 seconds to restore its own window to visibility after it's already loaded and running?

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Details man, details!

    When were the vulnerabilities introduced? If it was around the same time the installer suddenly bloated to three times its old size after Time Warner(?) or whoever bought them out and all real development stopped, then I'm not worried.

    Used WinAmp for years. Tried many others, but they just don't cut it. Some (like foobar) are good, but not good enough. When it comes to playing music on your PC WinAmp can't be beat imho. Fails a lot on video, but I don't care, that's what VLC/MPC are for.

    Also: Music + Milkdrop + drugs = happy place. Ryan Geiss is a very talented man indeed.

    AC, obviously.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dear old winamp

    It was a great bit of softwear, years ago- then it went all fiddly and buggy...That said, I don't really play out music from Windows much anymore, so I don't know what I'd use.. vlc, foobar or maybe even iTunes (shush).

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  8. Steve 11
    WTF?

    @Iron Oxide: +1

    I agree. The features I use have been in place for >10y. AOL keeps making it worse. Although I do like the CD/mp3 burning, and shoutcast directory. They need to make a Lite version without video/browser bloat.

    I'm using 5.0.x, with an older classic skin. Hotkey support, so I can control volume/track/etc without leaving current app. Have a VU behind a transparent taskbar (NVidia drivers) in WinXP. Can control from any room in my house using a logitech 2.4GHz joystick via the RMX plugin. Also works great as a simple shoutcast server. Low memory footprint, stays out of the way... what else do you need?

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  9. gimbal
    Pint

    Oh, AOL

    Pardon me for being out of the loop, on this, but I hadn't known Nullsoft had been bought out by AOL. So, yeah, I can see that AOL's expertise would probably be a contributing factor in the ultimate degradation of the software. Does it at least come with an uninstaller that actually works, today?

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