Sony and digital music database provider Gracenote said on Monday customers should update software to prevent hackers from breaking into their personal computers.

Sony and Gracenote made the comment in response to a software flaw which affects a Microsoft technology called ActiveX. The technology allows programs from other software vendors and multimedia files to be delivered over Web pages.

This vulnerability could allow an attacker to load malicious code onto a user's system and then execute the code, Gracenote said on its Web site.

Gracenote, known for compiling artist, track and other information on CDs, said it had not received reports of anyone being affected by the vulnerability and only a small number of Gracenote-enabled customer products using Microsoft's Windows operating system were affected.

Sony, one of Gracenote's customers, has provided some of the products at risk and the Japanese electronics company warned customers via emails that they should upgrade several versions of software to play music on their PCs, including Sony CONNECT Player and Sony SonicStage.

Users of other Gracenote-enabled products using operating systems like Apple Macintosh or Linux, or customers with Gracenote-enabled consumer electronic devices, were not affected by the security problem, Gracenote said.

More details can be found on: http://www.gracenote.com/corporate/FAQs.html/faqset=security/page=0.

Gracenote software is used as part of digital music players on computers and other devices to recognize tracks and suggest new songs to play from a collection.

Sony Security Electronics