Tech giant Adobe issued a security advisory Wednesday, cautioning users and alerting them to a zero-day vulnerability in the current version of its popular Flash Player and Reader.
Tech giant Adobe issued a security advisory Wednesday, cautioning users and alerting them to a zero-day vulnerability in the current version of its popular Flash Player and Reader.
"A critical vulnerability exists in the current versions of Flash Player (v9.0.159.0 and v10.0.22.87) for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat v9.x for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems. This vulnerability (CVE-2009-1862) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system," the company reported.
Meanwhile, US-CERT, working alongside Homeland Security, advised users to disable Flash in Adobe Reader 9 on Windows-based computers, and to disable Flash Player entirely. John Bambenek, SANS Internet Storm Center handler, says that while only a few malicious websites are presently serving the exploit, there are confirmed cases where links have been injected from legitimate sites as well in what is known as a drive-by attack.
The new exploit falls on the heels of several Adobe vulnerabilities, including the most recent - clickjacking and JBIG2. The flaws have left Adobe open to criticism from those in the security community, forcing the company to release two new patches. You may recall a blog post from the Director of Product Security, Brad Arkin, back in May outlining three new security measures the company was incorporating.
Fixes for the current vulnerability are expected on July 30th for Flash Player, and July 31st for Adobe Reader and Acrobat.
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