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Detailing the Security Risks In PDF Standard

Posted by Soulskill on from the many-and-varied dept.

crabel writes with this quote from the H Online: "At the 27th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin security researcher Julia Wolf pointed out numerous, previously hardly known security problems in connection with Adobe's PDF standard. For instance, a PDF can reportedly contain a database scanner that becomes active and scans a network when the document is printed on a network printer. Wolf said that the document format is also full of other surprises. For example, it is reportedly possible to write PDFs which display different content in different operating systems, browsers or PDF readers — or even depending on a computer's language settings."

5 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Abomination by panaceaa · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Wolf said that the document format is also full of other surprises. For example, it is reportedly possible to write PDFs which display different content in different operating systems, browsers or PDF readers -- or even depending on a computer's language settings."

    Amazing -- totally unbelievable!! This should be wholly forbidden. Who would want to read documentation that knew what system you were running, or what language you could read, and tailored the display to make it more relevant to you? Text files don't let you do these things! Adobe is clearly going too far.

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    my blog
    1. Re:Abomination by DamonHD · · Score: 3, Funny

      i18n is the work of the [devil|diablo|Teufel], clearly.

      Rgds

      Damon

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      http://m.earth.org.uk/
    2. Re:Abomination by camperslo · · Score: 4, Funny

      What a great feature!

      Everyone will get invited to the our next office party, but the Windows users will read that they are to come in clown costumes.

    3. Re:Abomination by BitterOak · · Score: 3, Funny

      What a great feature!

      Everyone will get invited to the our next office party, but the Windows users will read that they are to come in clown costumes.

      It's hard to know whether this should be modded Funny or Insightful, because it's both. And that is precisely what makes these PDF "features" so disturbing.

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      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
  2. Re:this is about samsung by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1, Funny

    Samsung cell phone (SCH-W830) spontaneously combusted in my home ... might use Samsung products, which are selling like hot cakes

    No kidding!

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    http://michaelsmith.id.au