Adobe issues critical security updates for Flash Player, Reader and Shockwave Player

Adobe released security updates for Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Shockwave Player on Tuesday to address critical vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to take control of systems running vulnerable versions of those programs.

The Flash Player updates address four memory corruption vulnerabilities that can lead to arbitrary code execution. The updates are version numbers 11.8.800.168 for Windows and Mac OS X; 11.2.202.310 for Linux; 11.1.115.81 for Android 4.x; and 11.1.111.73 for Android 3.x and 2.x.

Users of Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 will automatically receive updates for the Flash Player plug-in bundled with those browsers through their respective update mechanisms.

The same Flash Player vulnerabilities were patched in Adobe AIR, a runtime for rich Internet applications that also bundles Flash Player. Adobe released version 3.8.0.1430 of AIR and AIR SDK (software development kit) for Windows, Mac OS X and Android.

New versions of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat XI and X were released to address eight arbitrary code execution vulnerabilities: three memory corruption issues, two buffer overflows, two integer overflows and one stack overflow.

Users of Adobe Reader or Acrobat XI for Windows and Mac OS X are advised to upgrade to Adobe Reader XI (11.0.04) or Adobe Acrobat XI (11.0.04), respectively. Adobe Reader and Acrobat X for Windows and Mac have also been updated to version 10.1.8.

Adobe’s Shockwave Player, an application required to display online content created with Adobe’s Director software was updated to version 12.0.4.144 for Windows and Mac to address two memory corruption vulnerabilities that can lead to arbitrary code execution.

While not as popular as Flash Player, Shockwave Player is installed on 450 million Internet-enabled desktops, according to statistics from Adobe, which potentially makes it an attractive target for attackers.