F-Secure says stop using Adobe Acrobat Reader

I recently became infected with a Windows virus. I was using Foxit reader and downloaded a PDF file that used a javascript exploit to place a DLL in my PATH. This virus-infected DLL was found before the real DLL because browsers search for it in three locations, in order.

The version of Foxit reader I was using did not have the ability to turn off javascript. It may now.

Google for 7.7.7.0

Of course, pretty much every viewer on *nix is faster than Adobe Reader, which makes it all the more irritating and confusing every time I forget that it is set as the default in our CS labs...

Agreed! Foxit integrates well with Firefox and even opens some huge PDF's that Acrobat Reader chokes on and brings my laptop (C2D 2.1Ghz, 3GB RAM) to a crawl.

"Of the targeted attacks so far this year, more than 47 percent of them exploit holes in Acrobat Reader while six vulnerabilities have been discovered that target the program, Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of security firm F-Secure, said in a briefing with journalists."

Also: http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/about-us/

Yet another antivirus company looking for publicity for their patent medicines.