Pitt anti-virus software includes security vulnerabilities

The anti-virus software used by most Pitt campus computers includes several security vulnerabilities.

Symantec Corporation announced two critical security vulnerabilities affecting several of its products, including Symantec Endpoint Protection for workstations and the SEP Management console, the anti-virus software Pitt offers for free to students and faculty and employs on most Pitt computers.

The vulnerabilities could permit an attacker to remotely use code without the user opening or clicking on the harmful file, according to an announcement made by Pitt’s Computing Services and Systems Development.

In its announcement, CSSD urged users to download the latest version of SEP from My Pitt’s Software Download Service to address the security issues.

CSSD has upgraded the SEP Management console. Departments usingthe SEP manager will have the updates pushed to their desktop clients, and users will be prompted to reboot their computers. CSSD has “reached out” to users with their own SEP manager to explain the downloading process for the update. A download link is also available on the My Pitt homepage.

CSSD said it is “working closely” with IT administrators to address the vulnerabilities in an email.