Clear Belief Systems Blog

Adobe has had a lot of issues with the PDF document format and Reader software.  Hackers are using PDF’s as a way to deliver malware to PC’s across the world (see my post from January 8th).  Now according to one firm, ScanSafe located in San Bruno California, 80% percent of the exploits by the end of 2009 were PDF based.  It is extremely important that you keep your anti-virus software up to date to block these attacks.  Also, if you are not running Adobe Reader 9, go to Adobe’s site and install it right away.  While you are there, install the latest version of Flash, it is something else that is frequently the vector for attacks.  Adobe is not great about updating their software, they don’t particularly seem to care that it is being used in this way so it is a great idea to be very careful about what PDF files you open.

Additional Information:
ScanSafe report (registration required)
ComputerWorld Article
Foxit PDF Reader (free safer PDF reader software)
New Adobe Reader and Acrobat Vulnerability
Large-scale attacks exploit unpatched PDF bug
Adobe probes new in-the-wild PDF bug

Adobe has acknowledged a bug in their Reader and Acrobat software that is being used to conduct large-scale attacks against users.  The bug was acknowledged on December 14th but Adobe decided not to fix it until January 12th at the earliest.  Please be very careful about opening PDF files from unknown sources until this is resolved.  I highly recommend that you disable Javascript in Reader, click  here for detailed instructions on how to do this.  If you running Adobe Reader 9 you should get the update automatically when it is released, if you are not running version 9 you should install it.  You can also consider alternative PDF Reader software, Foxit Reader has been well reviewed.  Download it here.

Additional Information:
New Adobe Reader and Acrobat Vulnerability
Large-scale attacks exploit unpatched PDF bug
Adobe probes new in-the-wild PDF bug