Hacker Finds Multiple PDF Backdoors

Via Slashdot: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...39205&from=rss
Via EWeek: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2016606,00.asp
PoC: http://michaeldaw.org/projects/backdoored1.pdf
Source: http://michaeldaw.org

Quote:

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This article will give two practical examples of how Adobe Professional and Adobe Reader can be backdoored. There are 7 or more points where an attacker can launch malicious code. Both of the attacks discussed below are attached to the “Page Open” event

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By malicious code, the author doesn't mean execution of arbitrary code, but instead the execution of some Adobe flavored javascript. The author "accesses the Windows ODBC, enumerates available databases" with a javascript file, which is interesting but not really a big deal... and I don't see how this is a backdoor at all.

Isnt this about exploiting a feature for bad reasons/uses or am did I read it wrong? I didn't see any 'backdoors' in here either.

EDIT: woops posted in the wrong thread. Nothing to see here, move along

Hey Hey,

I'd have to agree with Soda that I don't quite see the backdoor here... I suppose in a very out-dated sense of the word, it would make slighly more sense...

The question here is how is any of this malicious...

1) You tell a pdf to open a webpage it opens a webpage

2) You embed javascript to enhance your document, it executes the javascript...

My response to this would be... IE has a vuln.. it executes Javascript... I've discovered the same vuln in Safari, Netscape, Firefox, Konqueror and others..

Also the Windows RUN command has a vulnerability... if you type in an URL it will open it in a browser window..

I looked this guys blog over... I don't see anything that impresses me.. and eWeek picks up and publishes anything and everything...

Peace,
HT