Warning: Adobe confirms PDF zero-day attacks

by Elmer Hurlstone

Posted: 12 years ago 14 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Just saw this post on the ZDNet blog:

Adobe confirms PDF zero-day attacks. Disable JavaScript now | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Since most, if not all, of us read PDF's like there is no tomorrow it seemed appropriate to mention it.

Elmer

#adobe #attacks #confirms #pdf #warning #zeroday

Dee Scofield 12 years ago

Wow. Thanks for the heads up, Elmer. And also thanks to you, Chris, for mentioning Foxit Reader. I'm completely ignorant on the whole topic of pdf readers, but what I do know is that when Firefox crashes on my machine it's usually when I've opened a tab to read a pdf file with Adobe. Hmmm. I see some quick edumacation in my immediate future...
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- Steven Wagenheim 12 years ago
  
  Holy sh*t. This is the worst f*****g thing I have come across in years.
  
  Thank God I use Foxit but man, can you imagine how many people could be
  literally SCREWED by this?
  
  Now I understand why I had that PDF popup come up from the one site I
  went to. Fortunately, when my Foxit tried to open it, an error was generated
  and the PDF was blank. I made sure the damn thing was removed from my
  hard drive IMMEDIATELY.
  
  The bad thing is, you don't even have to click on a PDF link. This site was a
  plain URL and I guess, what happened was the code on the site triggered
  the download of the PDF.
  
  This is some scary sh*t.
  
  Thanks
  
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GarrieWilson 12 years ago

Just another reason to not have PDFs load in the browser.
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- Steven Wagenheim 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by GarrieWilson
  
  Just another reason to not have PDFs load in the browser.
  
  Garrie, is there a way to actually stop that?
  
  My incident didn't try to load in my browser. It actually tried to start
  Foxit. I don't know how it did that but it did and it was freaky.
  
  But back to the question, how can you prevent PDFs from loading in your
  browser?
  
  Thanks
  
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  Loren Woirhaye 12 years ago
  
  I've pondered trying out Foxit for awhile. Today's the day then.
  
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Jason Stepp

12 years ago

Steven,

Check out this post from LifeHacker

Stop PDF files from opening in Firefox - Browsers - Lifehacker

It shows you how to disable firefox from opening PDF's.

I had to research this myself after reading the thread!

Thanks Elmer!

Thanks
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Steven Wagenheim

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Jay284

Thanks, it's already set to that.

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zachary0611 12 years ago

This is the first time I have heard of foxit ill have to check it out
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Loren Woirhaye 12 years ago

I use Seamonkey, a Mozilla browser related top Firefox -
here's some more information on disabling Adobe PDF reader
in all Mozilla browsers:

Adobe Reader - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
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SuzanneH 12 years ago

Here's another way to stop PDF files from opening in any browser (disabling it in Adobe):

Disable PDF from Opening in Web Browser (IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari) My Digital Life

Suzanne
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- bigmoney4me 12 years ago
  
  Thanks for the great tip! I probably open dozens of PDF's every day. I have disabled JS on all my machines.
  
  Barry
  
  Thanks
  
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Elmer Hurlstone 12 years ago

Adobe, according to ZDNet, has developed or is developing a patch for the vulnerabilities announced earlier this week. The patch will be issued on January 12, 2010.

The vulnerabilities potentially affect computers running Adobe Reader 9.2 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX and Adobe Acrobat 9.2 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh.

Mitigation methods have also been announced by Adobe.

You will find the ZDNet article at Adobe PDF attack update: Patch coming Jan 12 | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

The Adobe mitigation techniques are are listed here Adobe - Security Advisories: APSA09-07 - Security Advisory for Adobe Reader and Acrobat

Elmer
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MarkAse 12 years ago

I can second the scary s**t comment. Especially given the ability of a URL to force a PDF download, sounds like a hackers dream. Honestly, they hit it at the right time of year as well, since so many people are either on vacation now, or about to start one between Christmas and New Years.
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