Exploit in PDF Files
by gotya ~ April 1st, 2010. Filed under: Dev.
Didier Stevens, security researcher and expert on malicious PDF files, has succeeded in creating a proof-of-concept PDF file that uses the launch action triggered by the opening of the file to execute the embedded malicious executable.
What makes this piece of news really interesting is that he didn’t exploit a security vulnerability in the PDF file, but he found a way to start the /Launch /Action command and embed the malicious file using a special technique.
The only thing standing in the way of an immediate execution of the embedded file is the warning pop-up displayed by Adobe Reader – but even this can be (partially) modified by the attacker, as shown here:
