Adobe promises patch for zero-day PDF bug by next Tuesday

Computerworld - Adobe has promised to patch the newest zero-day vulnerability in its popular Adobe Reader software no later than next Tuesday, potentially adding another update to the month's busiest patch day for the second time in three months.

May 12 is also Microsoft's regularly-scheduled monthly Patch Tuesday.

On Friday, Adobe's security team announced that it would issue updates to Adobe Reader and Acrobat -- versions 9.x, 8.x and 7.x for Windows, 9.x and 8.x for Mac and Linux -- by next Tuesday.

"We are in the process of fixing the issue," said David Lenoe, the company's security program manager, in a blog post, referring to the unpatched Reader bug that Adobe acknowledged April 28.

"Additionally, we have confirmed the second vulnerability (CVE-2009-1493) for Adobe Reader for Unix," he added, referencing a second bug that was reported last week. "This issue will be resolved in the upcoming Adobe Reader for Unix updates. Currently, we have not been able to reproduce an exploitable scenario for Windows and Macintosh, but we will continue to investigate."

In lieu of a patch, Adobe had earlier urged users to disable JavaScript in Reader and Acrobat to protect against attack. Both vulnerabilities -- the first, which affects Adobe's Windows, Mac and Linux software, and the second that apparently only affects Linux -- have gone public with supporting proof-of-concept attack code.

Adobe's pace has quickened since the last Reader zero-day vulnerability. Adobe acknowledged a critical bug on Feb. 19, but waited until Feb. 24 to recommend disabling JavaScript and fixed the flaw on March 10 for Reader and Acrobat 9.x on Windows and Mac. Although the 9.x fix was to release March 11, Adobe finished its work and unveiled it a day early, even though that was also Microsoft's patch day for the month.

Adobe didn't complete its patching until March 24, when it delivered updates for Linux and Solaris, putting the bug's window of vulnerability at between 19 and 33 days. By comparison, if Adobe patches next Tuesday, the window for the newest flaw would be only 14 days.

We're continuing our work to be able to respond as diligently as possible when issues arise," Brad Arkin, Adobe's director of product security and privacy, said in an e-mail. "The timing of our planned product updates is based on this commitment."

"Their timing is the silver cloud," agreed Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. "But it's difficult to see through that cloud."

Storms, who has been critical of Adobe's security process, remained so today. Not only has Adobe set the Reader patch for the same day that Microsoft will roll out it own fixes, but the paucity of information and the lack of security management tools from Adobe continues to frustrate Storms.