Adobe Acrobat and Reader are on virtually every workstation. That very ubiquity makes a flaw in them so dangerous: a single malicious PDF can be enough to take over a system. The vulnerability has been given a high risk score, and for this type of flaw exploitation is often a matter of days, not weeks.
What's going on
The flaw lies in how the software processes certain PDF files. By opening a crafted document — for example as an email attachment — an attacker can execute code with the user's privileges. From that point, further spread across the network is a realistic scenario.
What to do now
- Update immediately to the latest version of Acrobat and Reader.
- Enable automatic updates so future patches arrive by themselves.
- Check your entire fleet of devices via central patch management.
- Warn employees not to open unexpected PDF attachments.
How Qteco handles this
For our managed clients this is largely seamless. Our monitoring detects vulnerable versions and patch management rolls out the update within the agreed SLA across the whole estate — workstations and servers. So 'update now' isn't a manual scramble, but a controlled process.
Unsure whether your environment is up to date? Get in touch — we'll take a look, no strings attached.
Read also
Klaar om zorgeloos te draaien?
Plan een vrijblijvende kennismaking. We brengen uw IT en security in kaart en laten zien waar het verschil zit.
Plan een gesprek →