Adobe acknowledges critical security flaw in Reader, Acrobat, and Flash Player

June 8th, 2010 - 3:10 pm ICT by BNO News  

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) – Adobe on Monday acknowledged a critical security flaw in its Reader, Acrobat, and Flash Player software, the BBC reported.

Adobe said the vulnerability potentially enables hackers to take control of affected computer systems. Users running Windows, Macintosh, or Linux are all potentially open to the attack.

The company is reportedly working to correct the issue; in the meantime, users of Reader, Acrobat, and Flash are advised to ensure their anti-virus software is up to date. “It really doesn’t get any worse than a ‘zero-day’ vulnerability like this,” said Graham Clule, senior technology consultant at Sophos, a security software firm.

Adobe estimates that more than 95% of computers worldwide have Flash Player installed. While the company is working to fix the exploit, the company suggested upgrading the latest “release candidate” for the Adobe Flash Player, version 10.1, which said it does not appear to be vulnerable to the latest problems stemmed from this flaw.

Apple has been among the strongest opponents of using Flash in its devices. Just recently, Apple’s Steve Jobs wrote an open letter explaining that Adobe’s Flash was, amongst other things, “the number one reason Macs crash.”

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