Adobe patches 13 vulnerabilties in Acrobat and Reader

Adobe has issued a patch for 13 documented security vulnerabilities for its Reader and Acrobat products.

The release is part of Adobe's plan to start producing regular bug fixes and patches for Acrobat Reader to tie in with Microsoft's monthly security updates.

Adobe has been criticised in the past for taking so long to release updates for its products.

The latest patches fix "critical vulnerabilities" in Adobe Reader 9.1.1 and Acrobat 9.1.1 and earlier versions, but apply only to Windows and Mac operating systems.

Adobe said updates for Adobe Reader on the Unix platform will be available on 16 June.

"These vulnerabilities would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system," Adobe said in an advisory.

The company said it has also fixed several other security problems that have not yet been documented publicly.

Users of Adobe Reader and Acrobat should update their product installations to versions 9.1.2, 8.1.6, or 7.1.3 to protect themselves from potential vulnerabilities, the company said.