A security researcher has released a set of tools that make it simple for attackers to exploit weaknesses in the auto-update feature of many popular software titles. By targeting widely deployed programs such as Java, OpenOffice, Winamp and Winzip, that don’t use a digital signature on their product updates, attackers can impersonate those companies and trick users into believing they are updating their software, when in reality the users may be uploading a package designed to compromise the security of their computer. Software companies should include these signatures in all of their updates, so that a user’s computer can validate that the update was indeed sent by the vendor. For example, Microsoft signs all of its updates with an encryption key that only it knows, and Windows machines are configured to ignore any incoming software update alerts that are not signed with that key. For whatever reason, Java, Winamp, Winzip