Adobe Systems has issued a critical patch to fix a
buffer overflow vulnerability in both its Adobe Acrobat document
management system and the free Adobe Reader program.
The flaw allows a malicious hacker to crash a user’s system or
take over their machine.
Adobe said the flaw relates to a core application plug-in used
in both Acrobat and Adobe Reader.
“If a malicious file is opened it could trigger a buffer
overflow as the file is being loaded into Adobe Acrobat and Adobe
Reader,” said the company.
As Adobe Reader has to be installed on PCs to enable users to
read documents in Adobe’s popular PDF format, the flaw potentially
affects millions of computer users.
Adobe has previously issued patches this year to stop hackers
from using flaws in Acrobat and Adobe Reader to gain access to
users’ machines.
