Meanwhile, software writers are still scrambling to fix a vulnerability, made public earlier this week, in PHP, a scripting language which is used widely to run servers on the Web, including those of .

The Adobe fix aims to cure an "object confusion vulnerability" discovered in all versions of the player -- Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Android -- but thus far has only been used to attack Windows systems using Microsoft's browser software, Internet Explorer, according to a company on the subject.

When exploited, the defect could crash Flash Player and allow an attacker to take control of your computer.

Malware exploiting the vulnerability is being delivered in email messages containing an attachment. The email, though, is highly targeted, which means it's directed at a limited number of individuals.

Adobe's PDF file format has become a popular vehicle in recent times for delivering a malicious payload to a computer, according to John Harrison, a group product manager at Symantec. "The malicious attachments that are coming these days don't include executables; they're a PDF or [Microsoft] Office document," he told PCWorld.