Critical vulnerability found in Adobe Reader and Acrobat

ALERT: Read the security advisory on a critical vulnerability found in Adobe Reader and Acrobat. We are working diligently to solve the problem across all platforms and software versions.

Buffer overflow issue in versions 9.0 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat

Release date: February 19, 2009

Vulnerability identifier: APSA09-01

CVE number: CVE-2009-0658

Platform: All platforms

Summary

A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this issue is being exploited.

Adobe is planning to release updates to Adobe Reader and Acrobat to resolve the relevant security issue. Adobe expects to make available an update for Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 by March 11th, 2009. Adobe is planning to make updates for Adobe Reader 7 and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8, available by March 18th. In the meantime, Adobe is in contact with anti-virus and security vendors, including McAfee, Symantec and others, on this issue in order to ensure the security of our mutual customers. More information on protection for this issue from anti-virus and security vendors is now available on the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team blog.

Reports have been published that disabling JavaScript in Adobe Reader and Acrobat can protect users from this issue. Disabling JavaScript provides protection against currently known attacks. However, the vulnerability is not in the scripting engine and, therefore, disabling JavaScript does not eliminate all risk. Should users choose to disable JavaScript, it can be accomplished following the instructions below:

1. Launch Acrobat or Adobe Reader.
2. Select Edit>Preferences
3. Select the JavaScript Category
4. Uncheck the ‘Enable Acrobat JavaScript’ option
5. Click OK

A security bulletin will be published on http://www.adobe.com/support/security as soon as product updates are available.

All documented security vulnerabilities and their solutions are distributed through the Adobe security notification service. You can sign up for the service at the following URL:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=szalert

Source:
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa09-01.html

EDIT: 01/17/10 – New information regarding this and the patches.

Microsofts advisory released a post. Also along with Cnets update on this subject that Microsoft, Adobe prep critical security patches