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Adobe Reader, IE 7 Holes Under Attack

28.03.2009
If you were an Internet crook, the following item would be music to your ears: A zero-day flaw--a security hole with no fix available before attacks could be launched--exists in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, and can be exploited by a poisoned PDF file in an attempt to take over a vulnerable computer.

As Symantec reported in February, crooks have hit the flaw with small-scale attacks that e-mail PDF attachments to specific targets. Adobe says a patch should be ready for version 9 of both programs by the time you read this, with fixes for earlier versions to follow. Read .

Word Docs Target IE 7

Bad guys went after a bug in Internet Explorer 7 a week after Microsoft distributed a fix. Those attacks employed a malicious Word document, but the has warned that crooks could also add hidden code to a hijacked Web site to create a drive-by download attack. You can in­­stall the patch for this browser flaw via Automatic Updates, or .

The same patch batch from Microsoft addresses a ; an attack through this hole can be triggered if you open a hacked Visio file.

Meanwhile, Mozilla fixed six security holes in its Firefox browser, one of which was deemed critical. Firefox version 3.0.6 and later has the fixes; click Help, Check for Updates to make sure that you have the latest version. The same critical flaw can hit the Thunderbird e-mail program if Java­Script is enabled for e-mail (it's disabled by de­­fault, and discouraged by Mozilla). Version 2.0.0.21 closes the hole.