March Patch Tuesday followed by PDF viewer patches

Major kernel issue and PDF problems fixed, spreadsheet software remains vulnerable.

Microsoft

released the March security bulletin this week, with the monthly Patch Tuesday updates rather lighter than usual. On the same day,

Adobe

released some important patches for its widely used PDF viewing software.

From

Microsoft

came a single ‘critical’ fix for the

Windows

kernel, covering a possible remote-access exploit, alongside two ‘important’ patches for problems in the

SChannel

systems and DNS and WINS server software. To the disappointment of many, a patch for some serious vulnerabilities in

Excel

was not forthcoming.

Meanwhile,

Adobe

issued patches for its

Acrobat 9

and

Reader 9

software, addressing some of the PDF exploitation problems which have become rife in recent months, and has promised further updates for other versions of its products in the next few weeks.

The official

Microsoft

bulletin is

here

, and the

Adobe

announcement

here

. Comment on the patches – and the lack of patches – is at

ESET


here

, with a detailed breakdown at

Symantec


here

.

F-Secure

is continuing a campaign to persuade users to diversify to a wider range of PDF-viewing software, to reduce the threat surface. The company is giving equal billing to updates for the speedy

Foxit

reader on its blog

here

.

Posted on 12 March 2009 by

Virus Bulletin