Adobe fixes Flash and Photoshop flaws

Publicly available exploit code leaves millions at risk

Written by Shaun Nichols in California

Advertisement

Adobe has released updates that patch security holes in two of the company's most popular products. 

The patches fix three vulnerabilities in the free Flash player plug-in and two in Photoshop. Publicly available exploit code for the flaws has been found on the web.

The two Photoshop vulnerabilities were first disclosed in late April by a security researcher known as 'Marsu'.

The disclosures include code for exploits which could allow an attacker to successfully execute malicious code on a target system via a specially crafted 'bmp', 'dib' or 'rle' document file.

Secunia rated both vulnerabilities as 'highly critical', the firm's second highest threat classification. The flaws affect versions CS2 and CS3 of Photoshop, and one of the flaws also affects Photoshop Elements 5.0. 

The set of three patches for the Flash player browser plug-in were also rated by Secunia as 'highly critical'. The patch affects versions 7, 8 and 9 of the player.

The most severe of the vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on a target system, while another flaw could allow an attacker to access sensitive user information.

If left unpatched, the Flash player vulnerabilities could put millions of users worldwide at risk.

Adobe estimated earlier this year that 98.7 per cent of internet users worldwide had some version of the plug-in.

Both patches are available from Adobe's Security Bulletins and Advisories website.

Tags:

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Do you agree?

IT white papers

Search vnunet IThound

Top categories

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Watch

A stressed CIO

28 Aug 2008

9.73 MBComputing podcast 28 August 2008 More...

Virgin Train

22 Aug 2008

8.71 MBComputing podcast 21 August 2008 More...

School children using PCs

14 Aug 2008

9.23 MBComputing podcast 14 August 2008 More...

Poll

GARY MCKINNON EXTRADITION

GARY MCKINNON EXTRADITION

Should Gary McKinnon be extradited to the US for hacking into military computers?

Previous poll results

Spotlight

Hacker

Hacker runs up $12,000 Federal phone bill

Five year-old flaw exploited to place 400 long-distance calls   More...

Steve Wozniak

IDF: Woz on Woz

Apple II co-founder muses on life, love and the meaning...  More...

Prince

Fair use comes first in web video

Dancing baby sets legal landmark   More...

Justin Rattner

IDF: Intel predicts artificial intelligence in 40 years

Computers smarter than humans by 2048   More...

Primary Navigation