TXAvi8tor
Getting Fingers Dirty
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2010
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 2
- Points
- 28
- Location
- Republic of Texas
- Printer Model
- 9000 II (x2), Pro 100, IP4500
Another IT consultant here, supporting manufacturing firms across the CONUS. Yes, PDF data files themselves are vulnerable. Although this story was released last Febuary, PDF exploits are very real:
Adobe has released an emergency update to patch a pair of critical vulnerabilities in its PDF viewing and editing software. The update had been expected: Adobe announced last week that it would issue a rush patch for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat.
The patches came on the same day that a security firm warned that malicious Reader documents made up 80 percent of all exploits in 2009. According to ScanSafe, vulnerabilities in Adobe's Reader and Acrobat applications were the most frequently targeted of any software during 2009, with hackers' PDF exploits growing throughout the year.
As expected, one of the two flaws fixed was related to the cross-domain request vulnerability patched last week in Flash Player, the ubiquitous media player installed on virtually every personal computer. The other bug quashed by today's update was a crash vulnerability that could let attackers install malware on a victimised machine. Adobe ranked both bugs as critical.
The good news is that Adobe Reader has been updated repeatedly to deal with such issues. AFAIK, the current version (9.3.4 for WinXP/Vista/7) guards against all known exploits. Note that the File Hippo.com link avoids the hated and un-necessary !@#$%^&*!! Adobe DLM (DownLoad Manager). You can get around it at Adobe's site, but it's a PIA.
Adobe has released an emergency update to patch a pair of critical vulnerabilities in its PDF viewing and editing software. The update had been expected: Adobe announced last week that it would issue a rush patch for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat.
The patches came on the same day that a security firm warned that malicious Reader documents made up 80 percent of all exploits in 2009. According to ScanSafe, vulnerabilities in Adobe's Reader and Acrobat applications were the most frequently targeted of any software during 2009, with hackers' PDF exploits growing throughout the year.
As expected, one of the two flaws fixed was related to the cross-domain request vulnerability patched last week in Flash Player, the ubiquitous media player installed on virtually every personal computer. The other bug quashed by today's update was a crash vulnerability that could let attackers install malware on a victimised machine. Adobe ranked both bugs as critical.
The good news is that Adobe Reader has been updated repeatedly to deal with such issues. AFAIK, the current version (9.3.4 for WinXP/Vista/7) guards against all known exploits. Note that the File Hippo.com link avoids the hated and un-necessary !@#$%^&*!! Adobe DLM (DownLoad Manager). You can get around it at Adobe's site, but it's a PIA.
