Vlc media player is a fantastic player for windows. its function of ripping cd maybe is not 'equal to' other ripper more famous, or not so?
IMO - the 'security' thing is overblown esp for isolated home computing.
2 - What is with these 'groups' / individuals finding exploits ? . Do you really believe busy people have so much time to waste - they can't even develop quality free software yet have all this time and (funds?) to find every exploit. Who is funding all this ?
3- if these 'issues' are hard or non-reproducible are they really issues in daily computing?