gHacks technology news » adobe vulnerability http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:31:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player Zero Day Vulnerability http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/24/adobe-reader-acrobat-and-flash-player-zero-day-vulnerability/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/24/adobe-reader-acrobat-and-flash-player-zero-day-vulnerability/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:08:36 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=14724 adobeAdobe has issued a security advisory that describes a critical vulnerability in the current versions of Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player. The vulnerability “could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system”. Adobe’s Flash Player seems to be affected completely while the file authplay.dll is the reason for the vulnerability affecting Adobe Reader and Acrobat as well. Adobe mentioned that the vulnerability is already exploited in the wild via targeted attacks against users running a Windows operating system and Adobe Reader 9.

Apple Mac and Unix systems are affected by the vulnerability as well but the exploit that is currently in the wild is only affecting Windows. Adobe suggests to enable UAC in Windows Vista (and Windows 7). Windows XP users should consider moving or deleting authplay.dll to protect their computer system from the threat against Adobe Reader and Acrobat “but users will experience a non-exploitable crash or error message when opening a PDF that contains SWF content”.

An alternative would be to uninstall Adobe Reader or Acrobat and install one of the available third party pdf readers like Foxit Reader or Sumatra.

Adobe does not offer any advise on the Flash Player vulnerability. The only viable option seems to be to disable or even uninstall Flash and wait for the patch which is expected to be released on July 30 and July 31.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/24/adobe-reader-acrobat-and-flash-player-zero-day-vulnerability/feed/ 3 Adobe Reader and Acrobat Critical Security Update http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/25/adobe-reader-and-acrobat-critical-security-update/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/25/adobe-reader-and-acrobat-critical-security-update/#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:48:51 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=5107 Adobe has released a security update for its products Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh that closes one critical security vulnerability. Affected versions are Adobe Reader 8.0 through 8.1.2, Adobe Reader 7.0.9 and earlier, Adobe Acrobat Professional, 3D and Standard 8.0 through 8.1.2 and Adobe Acrobat Professional, 3D and Standard 7.0.9 and earlier.

Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 as well as Adobe Reader 7.1.0 and Acrobat 7.1.0 are not affected by the security vulnerability. The vulnerability causes the applications to crash which can allow an attacker to take control of the host system.

Downloads are available that fix the security vulnerability in Adobe Reader 8 for Windows and Macintosh computers. Take a look at the security bulletin issued by Adobe if you are using Adobe Acrobat or a previous version of one of the products to find the links pointing to updates for your product.

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