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Adobe Warns of Reader, Acrobat Attack
itwbennett writes "Monday afternoon, Adobe 'received reports of a vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier versions being exploited in the wild,' the company said in a post to the company's Product Security Incident Response Team blog. According to malware tracking group Shadowserver, the vulnerability is due to a bug in the way Reader processes JavaScript code. Several 'tests have confirmed this is a 0-day vulnerability affecting several versions of Adobe Acrobat [Reader] to include the most recent versions of 8.x and 9.x. We have not tested on 7.x, but it may also be vulnerable,' Shadowserver said in a post on its Web site. The group recommends that concerned users disable JavaScript within Adobe's software as a work-around for this problem. (This can be done by un-checking the 'Enable Acrobat JavaScript' in the Edit -> Preferences -> JavaScript window). 'This is legit and is very bad,' Shadowserver added."
I thought after so many vulnerabilities everyone had turned that off in Reader...
If you have to use Reader, ALWAYS disable Javascript. It always seems like that's was these exploits use. Or use one of the many PDF reader alternatives.
Yikes! I hate acrobat attacks!
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
Wherever it says 'Uninstall'
It is high time people stop using any pdf reader that uses javascript or opens external links or does anything other than simply render the document on screen. Editable pdf, where one can fill in the fields etc must be a separate application, not plugged into the browser. I feel safe with NoScript controlling FireFox. Hope someone comes up with a good general purpose sandboxer that will sandbox every plug-in.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Separate your programs from your data, and your documents from your interactive media.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
To send an email after filling out a form and clicking sumbit in a PDF.
Honestly - It's not really like the Adobe reader has the vulnerability, its just javascript in general. I mean it's not great that the reader will execute the code just by opening the file - but now that you know it does that, is it really the readers fault? Isn't the user executing the code as if he were clicking a button now?
Replying to my own last line as an informational thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
Acrobat and Reader are bloated. Try something a little lighter like XPDF or Okular.
Palm trees and 8
If you've ever worked with such off-shore developers, you'll immediately understand why Reader is such a shitty piece of software.
Yes because it's ok to buy something and not to bother making sure you're getting your money's worth.
Responsibility lies with management for not implementing some sort of quality control - ESPECIALLY when dealing with offshore outfits. It's called due diligence. But since a lot of managers only care about their paycheck and not the brand's reputation, etc., well, this crap happens. If the board are too busy figuring out how much to pay themselves on top of that, well, that's the corporate world in a nutshell.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You could try the Edit -> Preferences -> JavaScript window. Here, I’ll make a little instruction sheet for you.
http://img38.imagefra.me/img/img38/1/12/15/clone53421/f_viwjj0m_1729695.jpg
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Not that I don't trust myself, but this is really not the time to solicit javascript-enabled pdfs from strangers.
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Sounds like you need NoScript and AdBlock.
> A spreadsheet app is also substantially larger than a PDF reader.
This *is* Adobe we're talking about here. For grins, I just installed Adobe Reader 9.2 and Gnumeric 1.9.16 on a XP VM, and for the informal survey of the "Program Files" directory, Adobe (203MB) weighs in at almost twice that of Gnumeric (106MB).
I vote for using the best app for the job. In the case of this thread, I wholeheartedly think the spreadsheet is that tool.
Method of processing duck feet
No, PDF format is a crippled postscript. It was intentionally crippled so it will NOT be a language, because distributing documents written in a programming language was not secure. Then they realized they crippled it too much, and added javascript to it. It is an improvement, since the scripts are localized in the document, easier to identify, they can be disabled if you want to, etc.
I think in general having scripting language embedded into an interactive document format is a good idea, however, it seems that Adobe's implementation is rather buggy and badly designed.
AccountKiller