Protect Your PC With Critical Adobe Patches

13.08.2010
Adobe released a this week to address serious security vulnerabilities. The most relevant update for the vast majority of users is the patch for Adobe Flash Player, but IT admins should also be aware of the updates for ColdFusion and Flash Media Server.

Adobe is supposed to be on a scheduled quarterly update cycle, but this handful of updates comes about two months ahead of the next scheduled release--which is supposed to be October 12, 2010.

The is titled "Security Update available for Adobe Flash Player", but the flaw identified in the security bulletin actually affects both Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe AIR. The Flash versions impacted include 10.1.53.64 and earlier for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris, and the affected Adobe AIR versions include 2.0.2.12610 and earlier for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR could be exploited to cause the application to crash, or potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system--enabling the attacker to install or execute additional malicious software on the PC. At this time, though, Adobe is not aware of any exploits in the wild.

These Adobe updates don't impact the for next week. The patches expected next week address critical security issues with Adobe Reader on Windows, Mac, and UNIX that were security conference.

Adobe has become a developers. As Microsoft has steadily improved efforts to secure its operating systems and applications against attack, the relatively ubiquitous Adobe products have drawn attention. Adobe's secure coding efforts are not at the same level of maturity as Microsoft, providing ample opportunity for exploit.