Security updates available for Adobe Reader and Acrobat

Adobe shipped a critical security update to its Adobe products on August 19, 2010 that addresses a vulnerability that can cause the application to crash and allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Note: To determine the version of any of the above applications, open the Adobe program. Then from the Help menu choose About Adobe, (name of program). You should see the version listed in a new box. Then, you can click anywhere on this box to close it.

The current version of the Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader is version 9.3.4. If you have an earlier version of Adobe Acrobat Professional, version 8, Adobe has released an 8.2.4 update as well.

Action Required: Ag IT recommends that College of Ag Science faculty and staff update any Adobe products to the current version.

Note: Along with applying this update, we also recommend that you follow these steps to Secure Adobe Reader to Prevent Malware once you have your Adobe products updated!!

1. To update Adobe Reader 9 to the current version, follow our How To Install and Configure Adobe Reader v9 for Windows.
   
   
2. If your computer has Adobe Acrobat Professional v8 or v9 installed as well, you should be able to use the built-in Updater program to update the software.
   a) From the Help menu choose Check for Updates.
   b) If updates were found, follow the on-screen steps to update.
   
   Note: If an update is downloaded, close Adobe before applying the update.
   Then re-open Adobe. Repeat steps a - b until no more updates are available.
   
   Note: If the automatic updater does not find the latest updates, and your version is not the most current one, go to the Acrobat for Windows downloads page. Scroll down to locate the update for your version. Download and install.
   
   Note: Earlier versions of Adobe Acrobat Professional (version 7 or lower) will not be patched.

If you have Adobe Reader version 8.x on your computer, you should remove this version and update to Adobe Reader 9.3. See our How To Install and Configure Adobe Reader v9 for Windows.

The Adobe Security bulletin, Security Updates available for Adobe Reader and Acrobat, has additional information and links.

QuickTime 7.6.7 Update Released

On August 12, 2010, an updated version of QuickTime was released (7.6.7). This update fixes an issue where opening a maliciously movie file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. In simple terms, malware could be installed on your computer. See more details here (Scroll down to the Security Updates section and click the link for QuickTime 7.6.7).

Action Required: Please see our How To Install QuickTime for Windows using the Standalone Installer for steps on updating QuickTime to the latest version.

QuickTime is installed on all Enterprise computers. Apple's QuickTime software allows your Enterprise computer to view graphics, videos, on-line video streams (ex: Candidate Interviews in the College), and more.

Security Update Released for Adobe Flash Player

On August 10, 2010 Adobe released a Security advisory called Security update available for Adobe Flash Player that announced the availability of an update to their Flash Player 10 software. (Note: this update corrects at least 6 security vulnerabilities.) The advisory states in part:

Summary
Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Adobe Flash Player version 10.1.53.64 and earlier. These vulnerabilities could cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Affected software versions
Adobe Flash Player 10.1.53.64 and earlier versions

Severity rating
Adobe categorizes these as critical issues and recommends affected users patch their installations.

Action Required: Ag IT recommends that you update the Adobe Flash Player on your Enterprise machine to mitigate the effects of malicious SWF (Shockwave Flash) files that you might view in your web browser.

For steps, see our How To Install Updates to Adobe Flash Player, http://agsci.psu.edu/it/how-to/install-updates-to-adobe-flash-player.

Note: If you use multiple browsers, perform the check for each browser you have installed on your computer.

UPDATE: Network issues have been resolved

We have resolved the network issues and all services have been restored.
Thank you for your patience.

Network outage and slowness

We are currently experiencing network issues, which may cause some services to be unavailable or slow. We are working on these issues and we apologize for the inconvenience.


Posted 11:40 AM, 8/6/10