Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root on macOS Silently

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by crazygringo on Thursday May 14, 2020 @01:08PM (#23182165)

You can't file New York State tax returns using any other PDF tool. It's infuriating but true.

Every other program shows the tax PDF forms as empty yellow pages. It's by design.

I assume it has something to do with being a "smart PDF" which generates scannable QR-like codes based on the numbers entered.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by mdeeks on Thursday May 14, 2020 @12:53PM (#23181953)

Unfortunately you need it for some other features of PDFs. For example, if you download the AWS SOC report it has attachments on the PDF (apparently that is a thing?!). You need to open it in Acrobat Reader to extract the attachments. I tried Chrome and Preview and neither work.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by bberenberg on Thursday May 14, 2020 @12:25PM (#23181479)

What is your alternative of choice? As someone who has to fill out forms all the time, theirs is still the most reliable in my experience.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by saluki on Thursday May 14, 2020 @12:41PM (#23181755)

Check out preview (default app) on OSX.

It handles most things you need for a pdf that you can do in reader.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by bberenberg on Thursday May 14, 2020 @01:12PM (#23182243)

Preview is my first choice but when you deal with BoringOldOrg their PDFs won’t work and I have wasted a lot of time trying. Big financial orgs, state govts, etc... I understand that this isn’t the case for many people, but for someone that has to deal with these forms all the time, the Adobe app is the most consistent.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by Doctor_Fegg on Thursday May 14, 2020 @12:45PM (#23181838)

Most things, but not everything. Preview performance with complex PDFs is, and has always been, lacking.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by travmatt on Thursday May 14, 2020 @12:43PM (#23181786)

You can't fill out forms with preview?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by olyjohn on Thursday May 14, 2020 @12:52PM (#23181949)

You certainly can. It's been a standard feature in PDFs for a long time. It's just that the PDF has to be created to that standard. Good chance the forms being generated by Acrobat is not conforming to that standard to discourage use of 3rd party readers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by mratzloff on Thursday May 14, 2020 @01:30PM (#23182536)

Form editing is really poor in Preview.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by crazygringo on Thursday May 14, 2020 @03:01PM (#23183863)

Curious why you think so?

I've encountered PDF's that simply don't work in Preview by design -- as far as I've been able to figure out, Preview won't run JavaScript embedded in PDF's for instance.

But all my experiences with filling out forms, makring up annotations, and all that jazz has been totally on par with Acrobat Reader. The same tools are present and all seem to work generally the same way.

What specifically have you run into that is poor in Preview?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by a2tech on Thursday May 14, 2020 @01:00PM (#23182060)

You can as long the person hasn't encrypted the PDF or built it to do online submissions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by ueueshitashita on Thursday May 14, 2020 @01:38PM (#23182681)

> You can as long the person hasn't encrypted the PDF

I fill out forms in encrypted PDFs all the time with Preview, never had a problem.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Security Flaws in Adobe Acrobat Reader Allow Gaining Root... by gojomo on Thursday May 14, 2020 @01:18PM (#23182326)

Imagine running any Adobe software, anywhere, given their record – unless required by law.

[ Parent | on HN ]