Adobe warns of zero day Acrobat, Reader attacks

Adobe will release an urgent patch for a newly discovered flaw in Adobe's Reader and Acrobat software versions 9.x that is being used in targeted Windows attacks.

The company will release a patch for the flaw no later than the week of December 12, noting "limited, targeted" attacks against version 9.4.6 of Adobe Reader on Windows.

“This is the version and platform currently being targeted. All real-world attack activity, both in this instance and historically, is limited to Adobe Reader on Windows,” said Adobe’s secure software engineering team.

It was alerted to the flaw by Lockheed Martin Computer Incident Response Team and members of the Defense Security Information Exchange.

Additional patches for the remaining affected software would be released during the normal cycle, due January 10, 2012.

Affected software includes Adobe Reader X 10.1.1 and earlier 10.x versions for Windows and Mac OS X, Adobe Reader 9.4.6 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Mac and UNIX.

Also affected are Adobe Acrobat X (10.1.1) and earlier 10.x versions for Windows and OS X, as well as Acrobat 9.4.6 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and OS X.

Patches for its X line of products would come later because "X Protected View" would prevent an the memory corruption exploit from executing, it said.

Neither Adobe Reader for Android or Flash Player are affected by the flaw.

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