Adobe promises fix for critical Flash hole next week

Adobe has promised to fix a critical vulnerability in its Flash player software by the end of next week.

The flaw - which stems from a bug in a component of its Flash player software but also affects Adobe Reader and Acrobat - has become the focus of targeted hacking attacks over recent days.

As a result Adobe Flash player (versions 9 and 10) as well as Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.1.2 on multiple platforms (Linux, Windows and Mac) all need patching.

Adobe said it would a release for the Flash Player flaw by Thursday (30 July) and for the Acrobat/Reader flaws by Friday (31 July).

Ahead of the promised fixes, Adobe published an advisory detailing workarounds here.

Security watchers have criticised the use of Flash within PDF document reader software as creating extra routes of exploitation of therefore greater danger.

"The vulnerable component is actually the Flash player or, better said, the code used by the Flash player which is obviously shared with Adobe Reader/Acrobat," an advisory by security researchers at the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre explains.

"This increases the number of vectors for this attack: the malicious Flash file can be embedded in PDF documents which will cause Adobe Reader to execute it OR it can be used to exploit the Flash player directly, making it a drive-by attack as well." ®