{"id":645,"date":"2013-01-16T12:09:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T17:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=645"},"modified":"2013-01-16T12:09:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-16T17:09:34","slug":"foxit-reader-security-flaw-reportedly-allows-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/01\/16\/foxit-reader-security-flaw-reportedly-allows-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Foxit Reader security flaw reportedly allows attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2025154\/foxit-reader-security-flaw-reportedly-allows-attack.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/nccomputertech.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/foxit-reader-logo-100021352-small.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Foxit Reader, a PDF viewer application often used as an alternative to the more popular Adobe Reader, contains a critical vulnerability in its browser plug-in component that can be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code on computers.<br \/>\nDetails about the vulnerability and how it can be exploited were publicly disclosed last week by Andrea Micalizzi, an independent security researcher from Italy.<br \/>\nNo official patch is yet available, according to an advisory from vulnerability intelligence and management company Secunia. The security firm rated the flaw as highly critical because it can be exploited remotely to gain system access.<br \/>\nFoxit&#8217;s developers have identified the cause of the vulnerability and are working on creating a patch, a Foxit sales and service representative said Friday via email. The patch is expected to be released within one week, she said.<br \/>\n&#8220;The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error in the Foxit Reader plugin for browsers (npFoxitReaderPlugin.dll) when processing a URL and can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via e.g. an overly long file name in the URL,&#8221; Secunia said. &#8220;Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe vulnerability has been confirmed in npFoxitReaderPlugin.dll version 2.2.1.530, which is installed by Foxit Reader 5.4.4.1128\u2014the latest version of the program. However, older versions might also be affected, Secunia said.<br \/>\nBy default, Foxit Reader installs the plug-in for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari Web browsers.<br \/>\nReputation as secure alternative reader<br \/>\nIn the past, Foxit Reader has been suggested by some people in the security community as a more secure and less attacked alternative to Adobe Reader. In fact, Foxit, the company that develops the application, claims on its website that Foxit Reader is &#8220;the most secure PDF reader&#8221; and is &#8220;better than Adobe PDF Reader and Acrobat.&#8221; According to the company, the program is used by over 130 million users.<br \/>\n&#8220;We have confirmed the vulnerability using Firefox, Opera, and Safari,&#8221; Chaitanya Sharma, advisory team lead at Secunia, said Thursday via email. &#8220;At the moment the best mitigation is to disable this add-on in browsers and use other software e.g. Adobe Reader.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe Foxit representative, too, recommended avoiding using the Foxit browser plug-in for Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari, but instead suggested using Internet Explorer to view online PDF files.<br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2025154\/foxit-reader-security-flaw-reportedly-allows-attack.html\" target=\"_blank\">Foxit Reader security flaw reportedly allows attack | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foxit Reader, a PDF viewer application often used as an alternative to the more popular Adobe Reader, contains a critical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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News\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/LEjhJubhF9k\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9330,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/04\/03\/security-now-657-protonmail\/","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":3},"title":"Security Now 657: ProtonMail","author":"NCCT","date":"April 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/OeSZg-ph3Ns This week we discuss \"DrupalGeddon2\", Cloudflare's new DNS offering, a reminder about GRC's DNS Benchmark, Microsoft's Meltdown meltdown, the persistent iOS QR Code flaw and its long-awaited v11.3 update, another VPN user IP leak, more bug bounty news, an ill-fated-seeming new eMail initiative, Free electricity, a policy change at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Security&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/OeSZg-ph3Ns\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9910,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2025\/02\/11\/slap-and-flop-siri-ios-18-3-update-apple-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":4},"title":"Slap and Flop &#8211; Siri, iOS 18.3 Update, Apple Music","author":"NCCT","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Xwqi58VczQ4 What's going on with Siri? iOS 18.3 update is out now, along with a fix to a zero-day flaw. 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And on January 27th, 2010, Steve Jobs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Xwqi58VczQ4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9516,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2019\/02\/03\/to-the-woodshed-with-you-this-week-in-tech-704\/","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":5},"title":"To the Woodshed With You! &#8211; This Week in Tech 704","author":"NCCT","date":"February 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/14UX3TQ0K3Q FaceTime Flaw, Apple Spanks Facebook and Google, Huawei Suspicions, FBI Wants Your DNA, and more. \u2022 How to Watch the Superbowl Commercials Without All That Annoying Football \u2022 Apple's Not So Horrible Quarterly Earnings \u2022 Facetime Flaw Dulls Apple's Privacy Shine \u2022 Apple Spanks Facebook and Google for Data\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/14UX3TQ0K3Q\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}