Adobe vulnerabilty and workaround...

[mjc]

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa07-04.html

Seems that there is a vulnerability in Adobe reader before 8.1.

[PrntRhd]

More on this:
Only Windows XP users running Internet Explorer 7 are at risk, Adobe said.

Suggestion is to upgrade to latest Acrobat Reader, but that may break some applications.

Javacool of SpywareBlaster fame has issued a little tweak tool for the Windows registry to stop the issue on Reader 8:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/pdffix.html
:)

Also found an explanation from another source:
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/97094

Microsoft first said it was not responsible since the issue is related to a non-Microsoft application, but is now investigating since Windows 2003 may be affected by several other problems with how the URLs are handled.

[PrntRhd]

And more:
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/97139
According to an advisory by security service provider Secunia, Outlook Express and Outlook 2000 are also affected by the Windows URI problem.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9041278&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top

[PrntRhd]

Another work around is to use Foxit reader instead.

[mjc]

Well, it has been nearly a month since this story broke.

Adobe issued a fix/update but...

http://www.news.com/Report-PDF-files-used-to-attack-computers/2100-7349_3-6215656.html

[PrntRhd]

I have been using 8.1.1 since the update was made available, it takes some adjustment but should be safe.

[mjc]

A security update for Adobe Acrobat Reader, which opens PDF files, was made available a few days ago, but many users have not updated the program yet, Hypponen said.

Come on folks...

[PrntRhd]

I would have preferred their doing an update for the problem in Reader 7, otherwise a good piece of software, but the risk of doing nothing is just too great to do nothing to protect yourself.

[mjc]

Yeah, me too...but since my wife gets an occasional PDF that was made with 8 and can't be read in 7...but KPDF handles them very well, so...:D