Adobe Warns Of Critical Vulnerability In Acrobat, Reader

By Thomas Claburn, Feb. 23 2009

Adobe on Thursday warned that a critical security vulnerability exists in its Acrobat and Reader software. "This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system," Adobe says in its security advisory. "There are reports that this issue is being exploited." Symantec security researcher Patrick Fitzgerald explains that the vulnerability is caused by a PDF parsing error. "Once the malicious document is opened it will trigger the vulnerability," he said in a blog post. "The JavaScript payload then sprays the heap with the malicious shellcode in an attempt to increase the chances of a successful exploit. If the exploit is successful, a malicious binary will be dropped and executed on the victim's system." Fitzgerald says that the malicious payload is a backdoor Trojan that comes from an open source toolkit known as Ghost that originated in China. Once installed on a computer, it allows the attacker to view the victim's desktop, record keystrokes, and access the machine remotely.

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