Security Alert: PDF Documents May Open a Security Backdoor to Windows

PDF documents are great: they allow you to display print quality documents on your computer screen, which mean that many companies now use them to supply manuals and documentation for their products, rather than printing them on paper. PDFs are so common that you no doubt have some form of PDF reading software on your PC, probably the free Acrobat Reader from Adobe. If you’re a user of Acrobat Reader, however, you should take precautions, as a critical security vulnerability has been discovered in the software.

When a malicious hacker attacks this vulnerability it causes Acrobat Reader to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that hackers and virus writers are currently exploiting this security vulnerability in order to take over people’s PCs. At the time of writing Adobe had released an update for Reader version 9, but are still working on a solution which they say will be available for all affected Adobe Reader versions, so keep checking the link below for updates:

http://www.adobe.com/support/security

In the meantime you should ensure that your antivirus program is up to date. Adobe have also advised that security threats can be minimised by disabling JavaScript as follows:
1. Open Adobe Reader.
2. Click Edit > Preferences
3. Select the JavaScript Category
4. Untick the Enable Acrobat JavaScript option
5. Click OK