Opera Patches Flash Flaw

Opera Software updated its Windows browser Tuesday to plug a critical security hole involving Macromedia's Flash media player.

The Opera 8.5.1 update fixes a weeks-old bug in Flash, which could have allowed attackers to snatch control of a computer by getting users to run a malformed media file. Other Windows browsers, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), are vulnerable to the same bug; Microsoft directed its users to Macromedia's patch site for their fixes.

In a brief security advisory, Opera outlined fixes for a separate critical bug in its Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris editions, and noted that it had improved the stability of the Japanese version of the Mac OS X browser when it runs Java applets.

8.5.1 can be downloaded from the Opera Web site.