Adobe Looks For Another Solution

Saturday, May 1. 2010

When we took a close look at Adobe and PDF exploits, F-Secure, a global company specializing in online software services for securing digital content,  determined that the PDF was the most exploited application in  2009, and moreover, that the number of PDF exploits was continuing to grow heading into 2010.

Hearing about Adobe and PDF exploits is, unfortunately, nothing new.  But what is new is Adobe’s approach to tackling the issue once and for all.

 

Over at PCWorld, Gregg Keizer, tech journalist who covers general technology and breaking news for Computerworld, reports on Adobe’s ever-ongoing efforts on security, and, in particular, how the PDF innovators are looking to other models for ideas when JavaScript restrictions and controls can’t keep up.

Here’s a sneak peek from the article:

Adobe may be working on other ways to beef up Reader and Acrobat. According to one security researcher, Adobe will add sandboxing defenses to its PDF software this year. Sandboxing, perhaps best known as a technique used by Google ‘s Chrome browser, isolates processes from each other and the rest of the machine, preventing or hindering malicious code from escaping an application to wreak havoc or infect the computer with malware.


Adobe has acknowledged it will add sandboxing to Flash — another of its products that is frequently targeted by exploits — and has it at the top of its to-do list, according to Paul Betlem, senior director of Flash Player engineering.


Reader may, or may not, get sandboxing as well. When asked about the reports that Reader 10 would include sandboxing defenses, a company spokeswoman said Adobe had no announced plans but was “investigating how to get different features to work in a sandbox.”

McAfee’s Dirro said adding sandboxing to Adobe Reader would be a smart move. “It’s one of the most useful ways to address a lot of different vulnerabilities,” he said. “Sandboxing had proven to be fairly efficient at stopping attacks.”

Read on to find out how the PDF is doing in 2010 so far.