Adobe targeted malware spikes

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There has been a spike in malware taking aim at vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and the .pdf file format, a report has indicated.

In GFI Software rankings, two of the top 10 detections for January were aimed at exploiting holes within Adobe software.

Adobe has had to deal with a wide range of threats in recent times, although 2011 appeared to have been fairly quiet so far.

At the time of publication, Adobe had not responded to a request for comment on the findings.

Adobe pushed out an advisory earlier this month for updates covering a number of critical flaws.

The software affected included Reader X, or 10.0, for Windows and Macintosh, Reader 9.4.1 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX, Adobe Acrobat X, or 10.0, for Windows and Mac, as well as Acrobat 9.4.1 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh.

The company said it expects to push out the updates for Windows and Mac users tomorrow – the same day as Patch Tuesday.

Elsewhere in GFI’s top 10 malware list, Trojans yet again dominated with seven entries, representing nearly 34 per cent of all malware detections for the month.

The security firm also spotted an increase in the prevalence of the FakeVimes family of rogue security products, of which there are around 17 different members.

The fake antivirus situation was only exacerbated by a scam that spread across Twitter in January.

Accounts started distributing messages promoting rogue software and it is unknown how many users were duped.

“Another indicator of increased rogue activity is the fact that we discovered, and blogged about, 22 new rogues on the GFI Rogue Blog in January,” said Tom Kelchner, communications and research analyst for GFI Software.

“That’s a lot for one month, considering we’ve seen an average of between 13 and 14 new iterations per month for the last three years.”

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