Much of the product line from security firm Symantec contains a raft of vulnerabilities that expose millions of consumers, small businesses, and large organizations to self-replicating attacks that take complete control of their computers, a researcher warned.

"These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets," Tavis Ormandy, a researcher with Google's Project Zero, wrote in a blog post. "They don’t require any user interaction, they affect the default configuration, and the software runs at the highest privilege levels possible. In certain cases on Windows, vulnerable code is even loaded into the kernel, resulting in remote kernel memory corruption." 

Beginning Sept. 23, Symantec will shift from having nine versions of its consumer-oriented Norton antivirus program to just one — Norton Security. "We're kind of catching up with our customers," said Fran Rosch,vice president of Norton's business unit.

"When they call in and we ask them 'Which Norton product do you have?' they always just say 'I have Norton.'" Norton is computer security giant Symantec's consumer-oriented division. Using something akin to the Netflix model, the program will allow each customer to sign up for one account which can be applied to multiple devices, including desktop and laptop computers, smartphones and tablets.