Adobe issues warning for Reader, Acrobat flaws

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Adobe issues warning for Reader, Acrobat flaws

Adobe Systems Inc. issued an advisory Tuesday warning users of serious flaws in its Reader and Acrobat programs that could allow a hacker to gain access to critical system files.

Adobe said the problems are in Adobe Reader 8 and Acrobat 8. An attacker can exploit several flaws in the applications by passing a malicious PDF file to corrupt memory and cause the programs to crash.

Adobe recommends users update to

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Adobe Reader 9 or install the Adobe 8.1.3 patch.

Danish vulnerability clearinghouse Secunia gave the flaws a highly critical rating. Secunia said the flaws could be used to gain escalated privileges. So far there are no reports of attacks in the wild.

The flaws include an input validation error, an unspecified privilege escalation vulnerability, and a boundary error, among others, Secunia said in its advisory.