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Zoom released a fix for its embarrassing Mac cam security flaw

Good to see Zoom finally doing something about it.

zoom demo
Image: YouTube

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Yesterday, we posted something about an insane Zoom security flaw that lets a hacker turn on your Mac’s camera, basically allowing anyone with a little technical know-how to spy on you. This even applies to people who uninstalled the Zoom client for Mac. Wild, right?

In our initial report, Zoom didn’t really have a solution to the problem. The only thing suggested from preventing this sort of attack wasy going into Zoom’s settings and switching off “turn off my video when joining a meeting.” Seriously, that was their best suggestion.

With the onslaught of press addressing the security issues at play here, Zoom needed to step in

Obviously, the negative press is getting to them, so instead, Zoom released a patch on July 9 that should resolve this whole mess.

  • The patch removes access to the local webserver responsible for the vulnerability
  • The patch also allows you to manually uninstall Zoom from your machine, completely wiping away all traces of the app
  • A later patch, which will be pushed out on July 12, will help new users who choose the “always turn off my video” option maintain that option is always acknowledged, regardless if a meeting host requires video to be turned on

It’s good to see Zoom finally addressing the glaring security flaw and pushing out a fix, but why did it take them so long? Why didn’t they initially issue a patch when researcher Jonathan Leitschuh, the guy who discovered the flaw, brought it to their attention?

Either way, glad to see they fixed it. If you’re someone who had Zoom installed on their machine, or even had it previously uninstalled, go ahead and download the patch as soon as you can.

Why do you think it took so long for Zoom to issue a patch? Do you think the negative press got to them? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.

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