Secure yourself from the recent PDF exploits by disabling JavaScript
A recent PDF exploit has been running wild across the internet for the past few days. Not unlike many other Adobe Acrobat exploits, this one relies on the fact that Acrobat and Acrobat Reader ship with JavaScript enabled by default. Shame on you, Adobe.
What is interesting about this exploit is that you do not even need to open the PDF, simply viewing a file listing in Windows Explorer causes the exploit to execute. Thankfully, there is a simple fix – disable Adobe Acrobat’s JavaScript engine.
To disable JavaScript, Open Acrobat Reader and click on the Edit menu and select Preferences. In the Preferences window, select JavaScript from the left side and uncheck “Enable Acrobat JavaScript” Press OK and you’re done.
For those of you who are administrating a Windows domain network, it might be more difficult for you to do this on each and every PC. Instead, make your lives easier by using a Group Policy Object to push a registry change out to all your machines.
I have created a registry file that will disable JavaScript on Acrobat Reader. Since I don’t know which versions are installed on each of the machines in the domain, I played it safe by adding the reg keys for the 4 latest version of Acrobat Reader – 6.x, 7.x, 8.x and 9.x.