Zero-day PDF exploit affects Adobe Reader 11 and earlier versions, researchers say
Adobe is investigating the report, but has yet to confirm that the exploit bypasses the sandbox protection in Adobe Reader 10 and 11
By Lucian Constantin
February 13, 2013 09:57 AM ET
IDG News Service - Researchers from security firm FireEye claim that attackers are actively using a remote code execution exploit that works against the latest versions of Adobe Reader 9, 10 and 11.
"Today, we identified that a PDF zero-day [vulnerability] is being exploited in the wild, and we observed successful exploitation on the latest Adobe PDF Reader 9.5.3, 10.1.5, and 11.0.1," the FireEye researchers said late Tuesday in a blog post.
The exploit drops and loads two DLL files on the system. One file displays a bogus error message and opens a PDF document that's used as a decoy, the FireEye researchers said.
Remote code execution exploits regularly cause the targeted programs to crash. In this context, the fake error message and second document are most likely used to trick users into believing that the crash was the result of a simple malfunction and the program recovered successfully.
Meanwhile, the second DLL installs a malicious component that calls back to a remote domain, the FireEye researchers said.
It's not clear how the PDF exploit is being delivered in the first place -- via email or over the Web -- or who were the targets of the attacks using it. FireEye did not immediately respond to a request for additional information sent Wednesday.
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http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236751/Zero_day_PDF_exploit_affects_Adobe_Reader_11_and_earlier_versions_researchers_say
