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PDF Exploits On the Rise

Posted by timothy on from the worse-than-a-bad-moon- dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to the TrustedSource Blog, malware authors increasingly target PDF files as an infection vector. Keep your browser plugins updated. From the article: 'The Portable Document Format (PDF) is one of the file formats of choice commonly used in today's enterprises, since it's widely deployed across different operating systems. But on a down-side this format has also known vulnerabilites which are exploited in the wild. Secure Computing's Anti-Malware Research Labs spotted a new and yet unknown exploit toolkit which exclusively targets Adobe's PDF format.'"

6 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Not to worry. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sure Secure Computing has a product for that. :-/

    --
    My blog
    1. Re:Not to worry. by electrictroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't set your browser to auto-load PDF files. (Or any other file for that matter.) Download it first; scan it; then open it externally.

      --
      The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
    2. Re:Not to worry. by Big+Nothing · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or don't use Adobe Reader, instead use one of the many competent and more secure open alternatives.

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      SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
    3. Re:Not to worry. by mpe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I was wondering whether there was any hope of getting websites to start saying "requires a PDF reader" instead of "requires Adobe's PDF reader".

      This is only going to happen after this kind of thing is called an "Acrobat Reader exploit" rather than a "PDF exploit" though.

  2. I wonder why? by Nerdposeur · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hmmmm. Maybe this is because they've crammed all kinds of interactive content into a Portable Document Format?

    I mean seriously. I thought the idea of PDFs was "this is as simple as a printed copy, and looks the same."

  3. Re:Good news cause PDF's should be shunned by martinw89 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, it's just that for some people PDFs are a hammer and every single printed word on the tubes is a nail.

    I have had plenty of times where I was turning in papers electronically or needed to transfer documents between computers where PDF came in quite useful. When I'm turning in a paper electronically, I have no idea what version of Office the professor has. Nor do I even have Office. PDFs are very useful in this case.

    Also, it may not be as bloated as you perceive. Acrobot reader is slow as hell. Evince and KPDF, both on Linux, are noticeably faster for me. There are alternatives for Windows as well that are better than the "official" reader.