I'm still using 5.1 on my w2k box - is it safe?

For the first time in quite a while, this update is NOT a complete re-installation of Adobe Reader. It's just a 2.2MB msi installer (for Windows at least) package.

This is a good deal better for sysadmins - I can deploy to 100 computers spread over 6 sites without anyone moaning about the download/install time!

I use Foxit instead - a nice relief from all those annoying Adobe pop-ups.

Does anyone here know whether the problem only affects Windows and Mac OS versions Acrobat and Reader, or has Adobe simply not bothered to release security updates for Linux and all other platforms the software in question runs on?

I also use Foxit - much cleaner and faster (2.2MB vs. 22MB).

I still use 5.1 distiller (it still works on Vista) and GhostScript to actually view PDF's.

Smiley face 'cos I'm a smug bastard.

I've not seen one of these things before this week, when I had the fortune to see it in action on an older machine. Some unrelated forum site running PHP tried to push some malware on a machine I used. A handful of executable files in %temp%, but no further damage beyond that.

The machine wasn't mine, but I told its owner what happened and I later got to apply a tool I hacked together that prevents downloaded executables from running. Said tool removes execute permissions from new files in limited user-writeable areas.

Lockdown hack or not, it was amusing to see this thing try to do damage and fail miserably. Sure, an updated Adobe Reader fixed it permanently, but were this a zero-day exploit it'd have fallen flat right on day zero.

and not just for security reasons, it's simply smaller, faster, cleaner, better...

http://veroblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/why-im-using-foxit-reader-for-acrobat-pdf-files/