Plex Warns Users To Update ‘As Soon As Possible’ To Fix Security Issues

Plex, with an estimated 42 million monthly active global users, has confirmed that it has now released Plex Media Server 1.43.3 and Plex Desktop 1.115.0 to address what it referred to as a number of security issues. While it is, at this point in time, unclear as to the nature of the security vulnerabilities, Plex has said that it has requested Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures listings and will provide "more details once they're published." However, in both an email and an online security bulletin . Plex has urged that all users "update to the latest version as soon as possible."

Although there is no word on whether the as-yet-unknown vulnerabilities have already been exploited in the wild or not, so-called zero-days , I would be inclined to take Plex's warning to heart and act accordingly. Not least because it is unusual for the media platform to email users recommending that they update as soon as possible, which suggests that the vulnerabilities are, at the very least, of some serious concern to users.

How To Update Plex Now

I will, of course, update this article once more details of the vulnerabilities in question become known. In the meantime, however, Plex has advised that users running Plex Media Server on a NAS device may not be able to install the updated software from their package manager, but manual updating is available across all platforms. These users should begin at the Plex downloads page and Plex said they should access their NAS web interface, select the App Store and follow the path to manually install the security update using the install wizard.

Windows and MacOS users with automatic updates enabled should ensure that version 1.43.3 or newer is installed. "To manually update your Plex Server," the advisory instructed, "go to our downloads page and download the most recent version."

Linux users should download the .deb package for Ubuntu and
run sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_1.19.4.2935-79e214ead_amd64.deb (replacing the last filename with the name of the package you downloaded) and .rpm package for Fedora or CentOS before using run sudo dnf install plexmediaserver-1.19.4.2935-79e214ead.x86_64.rpm (also replacing the last filename with the name of the package you downloaded.) Full instructions for all platforms can be found at the Plex advisory here .

This article was originally published on Forbes.com