Adobe warns of zero-day Acrobat flaw

Adobe has warned of critical vulnerabilities in its popular Reader and Acrobat applications.

The flaws affect Adobe Reader 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Unix, and Adobe Acrobat 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh.

The company said in a security advisory that the vulnerabilities could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

"There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild. Adobe is in the process of evaluating the schedule for an update to resolve this vulnerability," the firm said.

Adobe has been taking steps to improve the security of its applications after coming under sustained attack from malware writers. The company has increased the frequency of its regular patching cycle and is issuing more out-of-cycle patches.

Hackers have been concentrating on third-party applications for many years, and Adobe's document formats are some of the most ubiquitous in circulation.