Movie’s Subtitles Can Bring Virus In Your Media Device

A computer security company has warned that the subtitles people download for movies can bring virus in to your media device. As per a report by Check Point Software technologies has said that hackers have now inserted code in to subtitle files through which they can access your personal data. The susceptibility was recognized in numerous streaming platforms. It has put around 200 million video players and streamers in danger.

There are billions of users who download subtitles of various films. Subtitles are available in numerous languages online. As people trust these sites to download subtitles, it has created a path for hackers. This isn’t the conventional cyber-attack which is widely known. Movie subtitles are supposedly just text files. This also means that somewhere where you don’t expect any virus, you have not added any protection; you have indirectly made it exposed to the hackers. The players recognized vulnerable to these include VLC, Kodi, Popcorn Time and Stremio as per Check point. Also it believes that other players are also vulnerable to it. Moreover, VLC, Stremio and Kodi have already released updated versions in which this problem is fixed. Popcorn Times has also found solution to the problem but an update is not yet available.

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Kodi’s maker does not agree with Check Point on the severity of this issue. Keith Herrington, a representative for XMBC said that Check Point has exaggerated this issue. It is not always that a user downloads subtitles in a zip files. Plus the website would usually check if they feel any weirdness in the subtitle files. Moreover you can’t execute the code even if you get access to the file system.

So though Check Point talked about the severity of this issue, Kodi’s maker feels the issue is not that big of a deal.

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