Adobe, Microsoft Ready Patches for Next Week

Adobe Systems is planning to release an update coinciding with Microsoft Patch Tuesday to fix critical vulnerabilities affecting Adobe Reader and Acrobat.

The security updates will plug issues in Adobe Reader and Acrobat XI (11.0.0) and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh, as well as Adobe Reader 9.5.1 and earlier 9.x versions for Linux. The company offered no further details of the bugs, and stated that none of the vulnerabilities are being exploited in the wild. The same could not be said however of reported vulnerabilities affecting ColdFusion 10, 9.0.2, 9.0.1 and 9.0 for Windows, UNIX and Macs that are being exploited by attackers.

“We are currently evaluating the reports and plan to issue a security advisory as soon as we have determined mitigation guidance for ColdFusion customers and a timeline for a fix,” the company said.

The Adobe update for Acrobat and Reader will come the same day as Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday update, which is slated to includes fixes for Microsoft Windows, the .NET Framework, Microsoft Server Software, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Developer Tools. All totaled, seven bulletins are being prepped for users. Just two however are considered ‘Critical,’ Microsoft’s most severe security rating.

“While the 2013 Patch season doesn’t kick off with any shocking developments, it does offer a few interesting elements that administrators should be aware of,” said Alex Horan, senior product manager, CORE Security. “Bulletins 1 and 2 dealing with remote code execution have been flagged as critical and will likely receive the lion’s share of attention. Yet to me, Bulletin 5 may end up being the most significant as it targets Vista SP 2, Server 2008 and Windows 7. This has the potential for the most long-term issues as it represents an extremely large base of potential targets if it is not rectified properly.”

Both the Microsoft and Adobe for Reader and Acrobat updates are slated to be released Jan. 8.