Unity Software Stock (U) Slips on ‘Critical Security Vulnerability’

Unity Software (U) stock slipped on Friday after the company revealed a “critical security vulnerability” that affects a huge number of games. According to an update from the video game engine developer, this vulnerability has been present in the engine since version 2017.1 and later. It affects all games made with the engine since then, including those released on Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Android, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows, and Apple’s (AAPL) macOS.

Unity Software noted that this vulnerability “may allow malicious actors with local access to execute arbitrary code within your application’s context, potentially leading to data exposure or privilege escalation.” The company said that all developers with affected products must take action to resolve this issue.

Unity Software has provided game developers with two options to fix the vulnerability. The first is the easiest, which has them download a patched Unity Editor and rebuild their application with it. The second is more complex, but allows developers to patch built applications without the need to rebuild them with an updated Unity Editor.

Unity Software Stock Movement Today

Unity Software stock was down 0.43% on Friday, but remained up 73.25% year-to-date. The company’s shares have also increased 79.03% over the past 12 months. Unity is a popular game development engine used by both AAA and indie developers, meaning that today’s vulnerability news has wide-reaching effects. Gamers may want to avoid games made with Unity until the developers confirm they’ve been patched.

Is Unity Software Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?

Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Unity Software is Moderate Buy, based on eight Buy, nine Hold, and two Sell ratings over the past three months. With that comes an average U stock price target of $35.35, representing a potential 9.1% downside for the shares.

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