Casta_Diva
14-01-2010, 03:17 AM
Hello everyone. I thought it would be an interesting and helpful idea for a thread if, whenever people get virus or spyware warnings or anything, they share it for all of the iSketchers.
This evening, my sister-in-law sent me something that her brother had sent her, regarding Adobe Reader. I will copy the message for you guys, since lots of people (students!) probably use pdf files on a semi-regular basis. Here 'tis!
=====
There's a bit of a nasty exploit running around at the
moment, using Adobe Acrobat Reader (what most of us use to read PDF
files). This particular vulnerability allows remote command execution
on your system, if infected. What does that mean? Well, if you
downloaded an infected PDF, and viewed it, it sends a message to a
central server (in Russia, I believe) flagging your system as
compromised...from there, unknown parties can take direct command of
your system, troll through files, etc.
It is really quite an ugly little security hole.
If you use Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can patch this vulnerability by
doing the following:
Start Adobe Acrobat Reader
Go to the help menu
click "check for updates".
This will check for, and download the patch. Its about 60 megabytes,
so it will take a while on slow connections. It will ask to restart
acrobat reader when finished.
If you do not use Adobe Acrobat Reader, you are in the clear, but most
people have had to read a PDF at some point, and most use Acrobat
Reader to do it (it is free, after all).
As always, Be Careful What You Click. The majority of security issues
can be avoided by simply not opening files sent by untrusted sources.
If you want to read more about this exploit, I've put a few links
about it below:
http://www.techday.co.nz/netguide/news/security-patches-for-adobe-reader-acrobat/15129/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9144238/Adobe_patches_PDF_zero_day_other_critical_bugs
http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe-Reader-93-patch-addresses-critical-JavaScript-security-issue/1263405118
And of course, always make sure your Microsoft Windows Updates are
applied, and that you have active and up to date anti-virus
protection. (If you don't know what to use for antivirus these days,
ask me.) Windows updates wouldn't save you from this particular
vulnerability, but they help protect against many others.
This evening, my sister-in-law sent me something that her brother had sent her, regarding Adobe Reader. I will copy the message for you guys, since lots of people (students!) probably use pdf files on a semi-regular basis. Here 'tis!
=====
There's a bit of a nasty exploit running around at the
moment, using Adobe Acrobat Reader (what most of us use to read PDF
files). This particular vulnerability allows remote command execution
on your system, if infected. What does that mean? Well, if you
downloaded an infected PDF, and viewed it, it sends a message to a
central server (in Russia, I believe) flagging your system as
compromised...from there, unknown parties can take direct command of
your system, troll through files, etc.
It is really quite an ugly little security hole.
If you use Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can patch this vulnerability by
doing the following:
Start Adobe Acrobat Reader
Go to the help menu
click "check for updates".
This will check for, and download the patch. Its about 60 megabytes,
so it will take a while on slow connections. It will ask to restart
acrobat reader when finished.
If you do not use Adobe Acrobat Reader, you are in the clear, but most
people have had to read a PDF at some point, and most use Acrobat
Reader to do it (it is free, after all).
As always, Be Careful What You Click. The majority of security issues
can be avoided by simply not opening files sent by untrusted sources.
If you want to read more about this exploit, I've put a few links
about it below:
http://www.techday.co.nz/netguide/news/security-patches-for-adobe-reader-acrobat/15129/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9144238/Adobe_patches_PDF_zero_day_other_critical_bugs
http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe-Reader-93-patch-addresses-critical-JavaScript-security-issue/1263405118
And of course, always make sure your Microsoft Windows Updates are
applied, and that you have active and up to date anti-virus
protection. (If you don't know what to use for antivirus these days,
ask me.) Windows updates wouldn't save you from this particular
vulnerability, but they help protect against many others.