Several backdoors in PDF revealed

Researcher lists security issues with document format.

A researcher analysing the possibility of exploiting vulnerabilities in the

Adobe

PDF file format has released a lengthy list of ways in which the format can be used to breach security. UK-based penetration tester David Kierznowski claims ‘7 or more points’ are open to hackers wishing to execute malicious code.

Two of the vulnerabilities are demonstrated on the researcher’s site, including functioning examples of exploits. One uses

JavaScript

to automatically access a remote site when the document is opened, while the second accesses local ODBC databases and could be used to harvest private data.

‘These holes sound serious,’ said John Hawes, Technical Consultant at Virus Bulletin. ‘With these backdoors uncovered, we can be pretty sure they’ll be put to use in some way by malware writers hoping to gain access to our computers. Until

Adobe

finds a way to fix these issues, web users should take care when opening PDFs from untrusted sites.’

The research can be read

here

.

Adobe

is believed to be investigating the issues.

Posted on 18 September 2006 by

Virus Bulletin