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Adobe Flaw Heightens Risk of Malicious PDFs

Posted by kdawson on from the driving-by dept.

snydeq writes "Security companies warn of a new flaw in version 9 of Adobe Reader and Acrobat that could compromise PCs merely by the opening of a malicious PDF. Although attacks are not yet widespread, hackers are exploiting the flaw in the wild, gaining control of computers via buffer overflow conditions triggered by the opening of specially crafted PDFs." Adobe is calling the flaw "critical" and says a patch for Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 will be released by March 11.

10 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. I've experienced this by tygerstripes · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just tried to open a .pdf in Reader 9, and it's completely locked up - I've been stuck on the splash screen for 20 minu--

    Oh wait, it's opened now. False alarm, sorry.

    --
    Meta will eat itself
  2. uninstall.exe by jbeaupre · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does that count as a patch?

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  3. Re:What about Foxit? by InsertWittyNameHere · · Score: 5, Funny

    Foxit has compatibility problems because it doesn't have all of the features of Adobe Reader 9.

    For example it doesn't open the specially crafted PDFs our clients send us at work, which are thoughtfully secured with AntivirusXP2009

  4. Re:Patch by March something? by oldspewey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, first they have to form a Selection Committee ...

    --
    If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
  5. Re:JavaScript... by vtcodger · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because Javascript is the greatest thing since sliced bread and ... and ... and ... well you just need it damn it. Never mind that running stupid little programs that you download from unknowable sources is possibly the dumbest idea ever from a security and reliability point of view ... YOU NEED JAVASCRIPT!!! Got it?

    --
    You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
  6. Re:What about Foxit? by pipatron · · Score: 4, Funny

    I use AmigaOS, you insensitive clod.

    --
    c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */
  7. Re:What about Foxit? by jetsci · · Score: 3, Funny

    I left you guys out on purpose...

    --
    Bored at work? Play Game!
  8. Re:Can we fucking dump "C"??? by contra_mundi · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's not a bug, it's a feature!

  9. Re:What about Foxit? by staryc · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since we're obviously over-generalizing a typical slashdot reader's reading/interpreting habits, isn't it safe to assume that most of us skip ahead and read the article ourselves anyway?

    --
    The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments. - Nietzche
  10. Re:What about Foxit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Strange, I saw a pretty good review of this AV software on PCMag...