Adobe Reader Security Vulnerabilities

Adobe has posted information about a known critical security vulnerability affecting Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat on Windows, Mac and Unix operating systems. According to Adobe there are reports about a limited attack on the Windows versions of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat 9.1.3 (and most likely earlier). A patch that is fixing the issue will be released by Adobe on October 13 for all operating systems as part of the Adobe Reader and Acrobat quarterly security update.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 who have DEP enabled (that’s Data Execution Prevention) are protected from the exploit. Users who work with different operating systems are encouraged to disable JavaScript to protect against the specific known exploit. Adobe mentions that it is on the other hand possible to create an exploit that does not rely on JavaScript.

Adobe plans to resolve this issue as part of the upcoming Adobe Reader and Acrobat quarterly security update, scheduled for release on October 13. Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.1.3 customers with DEP enabled on Windows Vista will be protected from this exploit. Disabling JavaScript also mitigates against this specific exploit, although a variant that does not rely on JavaScript could be possible. In the meantime, Adobe is also in contact with Antivirus and Security vendors regarding the issue and recommends users keep their anti-virus definitions up to date.

Probably the best protection at this point is to uninstall Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat and install a third party pdf viewer like Foxit Reader, muPDF or STDU Viewer. Additional information are available at the Adobe website.

• Reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Delicious
• Digg
• Twitter

Tags: adobe, adobe acrobat, adobe reader, adobe reader exploit, adobe reader vulnerability, pdf
Categories: Adobe, Security

Read Related Posts

1. Adobe Reader and Acrobat Security Updates
2. Adobe Reader and Acrobat Critical Security Update
3. Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player Zero Day Vulnerability
4. Adobe Reader Security Update
5. Unofficial Adobe Reader Patch Released
6. Critical Adobe Reader Update
7. Adobe Reader 9 Lite
8. Adobe Reader Speedup

4 Responses to “Adobe Reader Security Vulnerabilities”

1. tuna says:

   October 9, 2009 at 5:10 am

   Besides the frequent security issues, Adobe Reader install size is 200MB+(yes, 200MB to read pdf’s) while FoxIt install size is 7MB. Hmmmm.

   Reply
2. Taco says:

   October 9, 2009 at 7:06 am

   Anybody who uses Adobe Acrobat is a vulnerability. With better and free alternatives like PDF-Xchange you will get no sympathy here.

   Reply
3. jj says:

   October 22, 2009 at 10:43 am

   foxit 100%
   adobe 0%

   adobe is bloatware

   Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

1. Acrobat completo y Reader vulnerables | Tecnone says:

   October 13, 2009 at 2:33 am

   [...] Más información [...]

   Reply