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.

by MacNN Staff