Six out of every 10 users of Adobe Reader are running vulnerable versions of the ubiquitous PDF reader package, according to stats from freebie anti-virus scanner firm Avast.
Adobe applications, behind only browsers and Microsoft Office as a favourite target for hackers, are regularly the target of Trojan-based hacking attacks, often featuring maliciously constructed attachments. Sometimes these attacks take advantage of unpatched vulnerabilities, a scenario applied to targeted attacks, but more often than not, malware writers attempt to exploit well-known, patched security bugs.
Users who fail to keep Adobe Reader up to date are therefore leaving themselves at a much greater risk of malware-based attack. Avast reckons 60.2 per cent of its customers who use Adobe Reader were running a vulnerable version of the program. Only 40 per cent of users had either the newest Adobe Reader X or were fully patched.
One in five users also had an unpatched version of Adobe Reader that was at least two generations old (8.x), it adds.
Adobe Reader was used by 80 per cent of Avast's users. The next most common PDF reader application, Foxit, featured in just 4.8 per cent of installations.
"There is a basic assumption that people will automatically update or migrate to the newer version of any program," said Ondrej Vlcek, CTO at AVAST Software. "At least with Adobe Reader, this assumption is wrong
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