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Malicious PDFs leave BlackBerrys vulnerable

RIM warns that new vulnerabilities leave the phones open for hacking.

By Jennifer Scott, 29 May 2009 at 11:00

BlackBerry servers could be left vulnerable to hacking, according to an advisory statement on RIM’s website.

The document said that there are several vulnerabilities in the system. “These vulnerabilities could enable a malicious individual to send an email message containing a specially crafted PDF file, which when opened for viewing on a BlackBerry smartphone, could cause memory corruption and possibly lead to arbitrary code execution on the computer that hosts the BlackBerry Attachment Service.”

It currently affects BlackBerry Enterprise Server versions 4.1x and 5.0, as well as Blackberry Professional Software. RIM has released interim security updates via the website until the problem is fully fixed, but has warned its users to avoid processing PDF files in the meantime.

It also reminded its customers: “As a mobile device best practice, Research In Motion (RIM) recommends that BlackBerry smartphone users open attachments from trusted sources only.”

Yesterday Kapersky launched its new mobile security 8.0 due to the rise of people using their mobile phones like computers.

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2 comments

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plz give me a free cellphone...

plz.. i need a cellphone and i believe you can suffice my needs.

By agudodz on Saturday May 30

PDF ubiquitous so in front line now

"PDF is ubiquitous and important enough that the bad guys see it as worthwhile to target. If nobody was using PDF they wouldn’t bother because they couldn’t gain any advantage from doing so.

"And for PDF vendors? We’re in the front line now; we have to code well and avoid all those buffer overflow issues and other vulnerabilities so that PDF usage can continue to grow and be successful." More comment here: http://tinyurl.com/oojlb9

By danielgdoc on Wednesday Jun 3

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