RealNetworks has patched the Linux media players that were susceptible to a zero-day attack for much of last week.

Both RealPlayer and Helix Player for Linux have been patched against a vulnerability that could let a hacker execute commands remotely once he'd convinced the user to open a malformed .rp (realpix) or .rt (realtext) file.

According to RealNetworks, Linux RealPlayer 10 (10.0.0 through 10.0.5) and Helix Player (also versions 10.0.0 through 10.0.5) are vulnerable to attack; last week exploit code was published on the Internet, leading some security firms to label the bug as "critical."

New 10.0.6 editions of Linux RealPlayer and Helix Player have been posted on RealNetworks' Web site for downloading. The Windows and Macintosh versions of RealPlayer are unaffected.

RealNetworks said that it had received no reports of machines compromised by the vulnerability.