Adobe warns of Reader, Acrobat vulnerabilities
updated 01:45 pm EST, Fri February 20, 2009
Reader, Acrobat security
Several versions of Adobe's Reader and Acrobat utilities are presently exposed to a "critical" security vulnerability, the company writes. In a special alert, Adobe notes that the vulnerability -- the details of which are not being made public -- could be used to cause one of its applications to crash, and in turn gain control of a targeted computer. Some hackers may already be exploiting the flaw, Adobe says.
Patches are said to be in development, but may not become available until March 11th, and then only for Reader 9 and Acrobat 9. Updates for Reader and Acrobat 8 are due afterward, to be followed by fixes for Reader and Acrobat 7. Adobe is meanwhile said to be discussing the problem with anti-virus companies such as McAfee and Symantec, which may help to mitigate immediate threats.
Under what OS?
02/20, 03:12pm reply
Windows, Mac, or all?
TomSawyer
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2008
Re: under what OS?
02/20, 03:34pm reply
All platforms are said to be affected.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
No Impact to Most Macs
02/20, 04:42pm reply
Macs OSX default PDF reader is an Apple App called "preview", so this Adobe security vulnerabilities would not impact most Mac users.
dliup
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
no impact to most?
02/20, 09:17pm reply
so what? it's impact to some. Is your point that we should not hear about it or something?
ophiochos
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2006
Simply stated
02/21, 08:28am reply
I think his point was that there's no impact to most Mac users. Period. Don't try to put words/intent in his mouth.
And he's right, for the most part. I, on the other hand, work in publishing, so this is a very significant issue for me. And, since a couple of the machines out interns use are older and have Acrobat and Reader 7, it makes me a little nervous to wait numerous weeks. I'll be keeping up on this issue, for sure.
acorder
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2005
March 11th?!
02/23, 07:40am reply
Adobe sure isn't busting their butts to get this fixed, are they?! Then only in successive versions.
You'd think with all the money they've ripped off from Mac users for an inferior Acrobat over the years, they could hire an extra coder or two to fix this issue faster. Ah, mustn't upset the shareholders!
/
pairof9s
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Joined: Jan 2008