Filed under: Internet, Security, Adobe
Adobe warns of critical vulnerability in Reader, Acrobat
According to the announcement from Adobe, this isn't just a possibility, it's actually happening. Reports have already been made of the buffer overflow exploit being used in this type of attack. Adobe is also working with antivirus vendors to patch the holes, and patches to update the vulnerable apps are in the works. The bad news: patches aren't likely to be ready until March 11th, 2009.
That's not nearly fast enough considering the severity of the flaw. In the meantime, you'd be wise to install an alternative applications to handle viewing PDF files. Sumatra and FoxIt are both good alternatives for Windows.
The announcement doesn't specify whether the flaw is platform specific, so Mac users may want to play it safe and stick to using Preview. *nix is also at risk, though most users are likely already utilizing alternatives.
The full bulletin is available on Adobe's web site.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian said 8:13AM on 2-20-2009
wow folks, if you are using Adobe Reader you deserve this attack.
Foxit ftw.
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Daniel said 8:37AM on 2-20-2009
I use Foxit Reader and that works perfectly well - its both faster and smallen then Adobe Reader - and does the same job!
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Mike said 8:51AM on 2-20-2009
I have switched our company over to Foxit last year just because of vulnerabilities like this. They like Foxit because it's considerably faster and if you pay for the Pro version allows you to go in and edit. However, for whatever reason we still have some companies that their downloads from their websites will only open with Adobe, which REALLY frustrates me. We can't ever seem to have all the security we really need. Makes life difficult. Hate the Adobe.
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Ken said 9:10AM on 2-20-2009
actually the security bulletin says "all platforms" - right above the summary
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D W said 9:21AM on 2-20-2009
Why would Mac users need to install anything? When you open any PDF that wasn't created on your own Mac with Acrobat, it defaults to opening the document in Preview - something that comes with Mac OS X.
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Maggie said 9:43AM on 2-20-2009
It doesn't appear that PDF X-Change actually works on a Mac... Maybe I missed the right link. Any other suggestions?
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Thomas said 10:00AM on 2-20-2009
Is it advised that we remove Adobe or just make certain the new program is the default?
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Cameron said 10:49AM on 2-20-2009
Just got hit by this last week, on Demonoid of all places. Nasty.
Unfortunately if your a designer, and your making PDF's for clients, you kind of have to have Reader installed. :(
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Abscissa said 12:41AM on 2-21-2009
I was going to make a crack about how crappy Acrobat Reader 7+ has always been and then mention my use of FoxIt. But I see I've been beaten to it by three other people. Normally that sort of thing would be mildly frustrating, but in this case it brings a big smile to my face :)
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bcantoni said 1:14PM on 2-21-2009
I'm also a big fan of FoxIt. In cases where I have a PDF file that it won't open, I forward it to the FoxIt development team. They aren't always able to fix the problem, but appreciate having those types of files sent in.
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Doranwen said 12:03PM on 3-17-2009
Hehe, I didn't even install Adobe Acrobat the last time I reloaded Windows on my laptop. Foxit only!
On a similar note, some of the teachers at the school where I'm student teaching were trying to enter info into some pdf form for an evaluation. Adobe actually told them they could not save the info or anything. I opened the pdfs with Foxit and not one bit of problem. Could save, export form data, etc. So Foxit really saved the day there. Now they all have Foxit on their laptops, and though they're still using Adobe for most things, I have hopes that they will decide to switch completely since Foxit did the trick when Adobe wouldn't . . .
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