Symantec confirms Norton AV code leaked

Symantec has confirmed that source code for its Norton anti-virus has been leaked.

As reported by SC Magazine, the security software vendor was forced into a blackmail battle with a hacker who claimed to have the the source code to Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton Utilities, Norton GoBack and pcAnywhere.

The hacker ‘YamaTough' attempted to get US$50,000 from Symantec, threatening to release the source code (which Symantec confirmed was six years old).

In a statement, Symantec confirmed that the source code was authentic.

“The exposure of this code poses no increased risk to Norton or Symantec customers. This code is part of the original cache of code for 2006 versions of the products that Anonymous has claimed to possess over the last few weeks."

“We also anticipate that Anonymous will post the rest of the code they have claimed to have in their possession.

It said the hackers had posted a "small portion" of the source code for 2006 versions of Norton Utilities, pcAnywhere, and Norton Antivirus, adding that it anticipates they would also post  code for the 2006 versions of Norton Internet Security.

It said customers were not at risk.

The code was posted to BitTorrent websites.'.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com