Adobe has issued a security advisory highlighting a critical vulnerability in its Flash multimedia platform technology that the company says can potentially be used to take control of a compromised machine. The company is urging developers and users alike to download and implement this 'out-of-band' update for Reader and Acrobat V9 and Acrobat X immediately.
Adobe points to activities such as infected Flash files embedded in Excel spreadsheets as a possible means of malicious attack, although Adobe says it is not aware of attacks targeting Adobe Reader and Acrobat at this stage.
The advisory reads, "A critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Flash Player 10.2.152.33 and earlier versions (Adobe Flash Player 10.2.154.18 and earlier for Chrome users) for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris operating systems, Adobe Flash Player 10.1.106.16 and earlier versions for Android, and the Authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat X (10.0.1) and earlier 10.x and 9.x versions of Reader and Acrobat for Windows and Macintosh operating systems."
In answer to this alert Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of security risk and compliance-management software Qualys, Inc., has said that users of Adobe Reader X are not vulnerable to the exploit, because the sandboxing technology included in Reader X prevents the code from executing. "We recommend installing/updating your installations of Adobe Reader to this newest version, as this occurrence highlights the increased robustness gained from the sandboxing."
