Security experts warn of Adobe Reader software flaw

Telecomworldwire,  Jan 5, 2007  

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TELECOMWORLDWIRE-5 January 2007-Security experts warn of Adobe Reader software flaw(C)1994-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

Security researchers have urged Internet users to upgrade their Adobe Reader software due to a security vulnerability discovered in older versions of the program.

Details of the flaw, which could apparently be used by hackers to view the machine's hard drive or make phishing scams look more genuine, were first revealed at the annual conference of German hacker group the Chaos Computer Club.

According to security solutions company Symantec the flaw can be easily exploited, although there is no evidence that the bug is being exploited in the wild so far.

The vulnerability is said to be present in the Adobe Reader software's web browser plug-in, which is used to enable PDF documents to be viewed in a browser window. The software is used by millions of people to view documents prepared as PDFs and users of both the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers are vulnerable to the flaw, the BBC reported.

Researchers claimed criminals could use the flaw to attack vulnerable Windows PCs and advised users to upgrade to the software's version 8 to avoid the risk of attack.

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