Origin has serious malicious software vulnerability on PC

Researchers have uncovered a serious vulnerability in EA’s digital distribution service, Origin, that could allow remote attacks on users’ computers.

The vulnerability was exposed at the Black Hat security conference in Amsterdam, where some hackers showed the loophole in action.

The hack uses a manipulation of the uniform resource identifiers EA’s site uses to launch games.

The exploit allows hackers to turn Origin’s launch procedure into an attack platform that can secretly install malware on user computers.

“The Origin platform allows malicious users to exploit local vulnerabilities or features by abusing the Origin URI handling mechanism,” said ReVuln researchers Donato Ferrante and Luigi Auriemma. “In other words, an attacker can craft a malicious Internet link to execute malicious code remotely on [a] victim’s system, which has Origin installed.”

EA did respond to the found flaw, saying that: “our team is constantly investigating hypotheticals like this one as we continually update our security infrastructure.”