The Register |
Foxit PDF Reader is well and truly foxed up, but vendor won't patch …
The Register The Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) has gone public with a Foxit PDF Reader vulnerability without a fix, because the vendor resisted patching. The ZDI made the … |
CIO |
Adobe Reader, Edge, Safari, and Ubuntu fall during first day at Pwn2Own
CIO It's organized and sponsored by the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), an exploit acquisition program operated by Trend Micro after its acquisition of TippingPoint. This year the contest has a prize pool of US$ 1 million for exploits in five categories: virtual … |
Something like 400 million people use Foxit’s PDF reader.
And as a dozen vulnerabilities have been found in the software, one hopes that 400 million people are checking they have updated their copy.
ThreatPost has the details about the vulnerabilities found in builds 7.3.4.311 and earlier of Foxit Reader and Foxit PhantomPDF:
To exploit the vulnerabilities an attacker could use an image file – either a BMP, TIFF, GIF, or JPEG image – to trigger a read memory past the end of an allocated buffer, or object. From there, depending on the vulnerability, an attacker could either leverage the vulnerability as is, or use it in conjunction with other vulnerabilities to “execute code in the context of the current process.”
In other words, an attacker could simply send you a boobytrapped PDF file and if you happened to open it in Foxit’s PDF reader – kaboom!
Alternatively, you could be tricked into visiting a webpage containing a malformed PDF file.
I would understand completely if you have turned your back on Adobe’s PDF reader. The software, and its Adobe Flash Player stablemate, have often been found lacking with exploitable vulnerabilities.
But don’t think that avoiding Adobe Reader means that you somehow have protected yourself from PDF-borne malware. Foxit users would be wise to check that they are running an updated version of the software.
Read Foxit’s security bulletin here.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has vetoed legislation that would provide for the pilot use of automatic license plate readers by law enforcement to identify stolen vehicles and uninsured motorists.
Like GPS trackers on vehicles and so-called Stingrays or “IMSI catchers” that track the location of mobile phones by mimicking cellphone towers, automatic license plate readers have become a controversial privacy issue, with many civil rights groups opposing their indiscriminate use.
In a letter, explaining his decision to return the bill to the state Senate, Jindal said the personal information captured by the automatic license plate reader cameras, which includes a person’s vehicle location, would be retained in a central database and accessible to not only law enforcement agencies but also to private entities for a period of time, regardless of whether or not the system detects that a person is in violation of vehicle insurance rules.
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