VLC Media Player Unveils Its ‘Biggest Security Release Ever’: What You Need to Know
VLC has released version 3.0.24, touted as its "biggest security release ever," with over 130 fixes across the application and its libraries. According to VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf, while most of the patched security flaws are difficult to exploit, some are still significant enough to warrant an update.
This update does not introduce major new user-facing features, but it does include several noteworthy improvements. The new version enhances support for ATRAC3 and ATRAC9 audio decoding, which are used by Sony’s MiniDiscs and PSP-era devices, respectively. Additionally, it now supports CEA-708 closed captions in MP4 files and has significantly upgraded the FFmpeg version for better compatibility with Samsung’s APV files.
Notable changes in VLC 3.0.24 include:
- SRT listener mode implementation
- Enhanced public key authentication options for SFTP
- Improvements to WebVTT (.vtt) handling
- Better subtitle language detection through filenames and metadata
- librist support for RIST input and output
- Updates regarding Chromecast device compatibility
- Enhanced Super Resolution scaling on Moore Threads GPUs
- A transition of FFmpeg from version 4.4 to 8.1.2
- Removal of the NPAPI browser plugin
- Update validation now utilizes an RSA-4096 key
- Fixes for a bug that caused slow startup times after Daylight Saving Time changes
In addition to these technical updates, there’s interesting news regarding VLC’s versatility. A fork named PowerVLC has been developed, which ports the modern 3.x series to older Apple devices with PPC processors, optimizing it to run on Mac OS X 10.2 from 2002. This effort has extended to the Linux community, where the lead developer of MintPPC has successfully ported PowerVLC to run on Linux as well.
Users can download VLC 3.0.24 from the official website to access installers for Windows and macOS. Linux users can find the latest build via the official snap package for Ubuntu or through an unofficial Flathub listing. The version is also available in the Ubuntu 26.10 archives as a traditional Debian package. As this update addresses critical security issues, users are encouraged to upgrade for their safety.
For further details about the new features and to download the update, visit VLC’s official website.