Security & Privacy + Software & Apps

Adobe is in the security news again, as a zero-day Flash vulnerability threatens Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash. On Adobe’s security blog, a brief post says that, “Adobe is aware of reports of a potential vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.1.2 and Adobe Flash Player 9 and 10. We are currently investigating this potential issue and will have an update once we get more information.”

According to Inforworld, “An Adobe spokesman early Wednesday confirmed that the vulnerability was an issue within Flash content that is inserted into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. Users can drop Flash movies into PDF files, for instance.” Infoworld also reports that attacks exploiting this flaw have been seen in the wild, as does PC World’s Security Alert blog.

We’ve said it before, but if you need to view PDFs – and who doesn’t – use Apple’s excellent Preview application, which is relatively safe. Adobe’s Reader and Acrobat programs are regularly the source of security issues, and, in most cases, users can get by with Preview. One of the only times they may need an Adobe application is to fill out forms in PDF documents.