Smplayer can use mplayer or mpv which in turn can use ffmpeg or in theory its fork libav. There is a big intersection under the hood and indeed there is a poss

Smplayer can use mplayer or mpv which in turn can use ffmpeg or in theory its fork libav. There is a big intersection under the hood and indeed there is a possibility for a defect to effect both VLC although this issue is vlc and mac specific. I don't think Smplayer is more secure I just think its a better tool than VLC.