According to the Adobe, the updates to fix critical security flaws include Adobe Reader X (10.0) and earlier versions for Windows and Mac, Adobe Reader 9.4.1 and earlier versions for UNIX, and Adobe Acrobat X (10.0) and earlier for Windows and Mac.
Adobe defines critical as: “a vulnerability, which, if exploited would allow malicious native-code to execute, potentially without a user being aware.”
Adobe expects to make updates for Windows and Mac available today, while an update for UNIX is not expected until the week of February 28.
Attacks against Adobe software have been on the rise. According to McAfee Labs, Adobe’s PDF technologies were a favorite target of malware developers through 2010.
“Our malware database reveals that malicious Adobe PDFs topped the number of unique samples by a wide margin, making them the favorite targets of client-side exploitation”, McAfee Labs said in its fourth quarter 2010 threat report. The company expects this trend to continue in 2011, as more Adobe technologies appear on mobile devices and non-Microsoft operating systems.