Mono 2.0 lets .Net apps run on Linux

Mono 2.0, an open-source runtime enabling .Net-based applications to run on Linux, Mac OS X, and Unix, is being released Monday, featuring capabilities for a number of .Net technologies.

Considered a major upgrade, the open source Mono 2.0 runtime leverages Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0 programming model. With Mono, developers can build desktop and server applications using Microsoft-based environments and deploy them across multiple platforms, including Windows. Novell is leading the Mono effort.

"The existing apps you build on Windows, you can now run those applications on Linux or MacOS 10. Different people have different reasons for doing so," such as platform consolidation, said Miguel de Icaza, vice president of developer platforms at Novell and Mono project maintainer.

Mono 2.0 supports the C# 3.0 language and LINQ (Language Integrated Query) for querying of data across databases, objects, and XML content, de Icaza said. Also, users can move over server applications built for .Net and client applications built with Windows Forms.

Version 2.0 of Mono, however, lacks support for key .Net 3.0 and .Net 3.5 APIs, specifically Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows Presentation Foundation. These are not currently supported because they were not amongst the most requested technologies sought by early users of Mono, de Icaza said.

Also featured in Mono 2.0 is MoMA (Mono Migration Analyzer), a tool to assess the readiness of Linux environments for migration of .Net applications.

Four Patches Released By Real Network For Critical Bugs in Multimedia Player

RealNetworks has issued four critical patches for several versions of its RealPlayer running on Windows, Linux and Apple's Mac OS X.The flaws could allow a hacker to run malicious code on a PC or cause the computer to reveal information, according to an advisory from Secunia, a security vendor based in Denmark.

RealPlayer is an application that plays audio and video streamed over the Internet.

RealNetworks has published a table detailing which vulnerabilities affect certain player versions on the different platforms. Some users will need to download an entire new version of the application, while others may be able to just download patches.

One of the problems involves the handling of frames in SWF (Shockwave Flash) files due to a design error, which can cause a heap-based buffer overflow, Secunia said.

Another problem causes a stack-based buffer overflow when a media file is imported using an ActiveX control, Microsoft's technology that adds extra functionality to Web pages.

A third flaw is described by RealPlayer as allowing local resources to be accessed. The fourth also involves ActiveX, where a timing issue with "Controls", "Console", or "WindowName" properties can be maliciously manipulated to corrupt RealPlayer's memory, Secunia said.

Secunia ranked the flaws as "highly critical," the vendor's second-highest ranking of risk. The flaws were found by Peter Vreugdenhil, Elazar Broad, Dyon Balding of Secunia and another anonymous researcher, Secunia said.