Trend Micro recently came across a .PDF file sample that exploits a vulnerability that was discovered as early as mid-2009. The specially crafted .PDF file detected as TROJ_PIDIEF.SML contains malicious JavaScript in its code that uses the getAnnots() method to corrupt an affected system’s memory. It is interesting to note that its final payload is the download of a malicious binary file that happens to be a ZBOT/ZeuS variant detected as TROJ_ZBOT.BYZ. This acts as a combination of the two ...

Within days of Adobe’s release of out-of-band security updates for both Acrobat and Reader, word now comes from security researcher Aviv Raff, of another new vulnerability in an Adobe product. The flaw was found in Adobe Download Manager (DLM), an application Adobe uses to deliver common applications (e.g., Flash and Reader) to users’ systems. Normally, it cannot be used to download non-Adobe files onto users’ systems. However, according to Raff, a vulnerability in DLM that allows third parties to download and ...

Since the beginning of the year, Adobe and Microsoft have been under a bad light since most of the most recent attacks notably exploited the two companies’ software vulnerabilities. Adobe Reader and Acrobat, in particular, are currently cybercriminals’ favorite targets. When news that Adobe would be releasing an out-of-band security update to prevent an exploitable hole in certain versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat, some raised their brows in question while some rolled their eyes and declared that this was ...

As previously announced in the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification released last week, this month’s patch cycle includes 13 bulletins intended to patch 26 vulnerabilities in several versions of Windows OS and Office. The record release is a far cry from last month’s lone patch. The long list includes five bulletins rated “critical,” which specifically patch nine vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution. Unless patched, an attacker could exploit any of the said vulnerabilities to gain control of the ...

The recent attacks on Google and other large organizations (currently being referred to by others as “Aurora,” “Google attacks,” or “HYDRAQ”) refer to a set of carefully orchestrated, sophisticated, and highly complex attacks. They comprised malicious threats to all three communication vectors—email, Web, and files, plus, most notably, a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer (IE). In order to stay protected, businesses and end users need to deploy proactive vulnerability protection plus cloud-based threat mitigation solutions to stay one step ahead ...