Microsoft and Adobe Systems each issued security updates on Tuesday. Redmond released a single patch to plug a flaw that’s not terribly scary, unless you happen to be running Windows 2000. Adobe’s patch bundle, however, covers at least eight critical security flaws, including one that hackers have been exploiting in targeted attacks of late.
The Adobe update, available from this link, brings Acrobat and Reader installations to version 9.3. Updates are available for Windows, Mac and UNIX systems. Adobe has special instructions here for those who cannot for whatever reasons upgrade and need to stick with the 8.x version of these programs.
Adobe was one of those programs that I nixed from most of my Windows systems a while ago, and I’ve never looked back (QuickTime and Java were the others). I’ve been using the free Foxit Reader on all of the Windows systems that I manage, and have been quite pleased with it. Your mileage may vary.
Microsoft pushed out a single new patch that plugs a flaw in the way Windows processes certain types of fonts. Redmond labeled the bug a “low” severity rating for every supported version of Windows except Windows 2000, for which it assigned the flaw a “critical” rating (critical flaws can be exploited by malware or hackers without any action by the user, save for visiting a Web site maybe). The patch is available through Windows Updates or via Automatic Updates.
As always, please drop a note in the comments with your two cents, and let us know you experienced any problems, oddities or frustrations installing either of this updates.