Hi malware fighters,
A security hole in Flash that was patched by Adobe at the end of July last,
is still being abused for directed attacks,
for which a recently found exploit can disable various security programs.
Meant is a malicious Flash film that comes attached to a PDF file.
As soon as the victim opens up the document,
the exploits tries to disable security software it finds.
Then it starts to collect privacy data,
like information on the Operational System,
CPU speed and type, number of disks to write to,
accountname of logged in users and login data of various programs,
e.g. MSN Messenger.
Backdoor
Through backdoor functionality the malcreant can give new commands.
One of the instructions tells the malware to be copied to all external disks,
just like a worm does.
"This functionality can infect a network,
like seen with Conficker", according to McAfeee's Dennis Elser:
http://www.trustedsource.org/blog/296/From-Targeted-PDF-Attack-to-Backdoor-in-Five-Stages From a security point of view adding Flash means an added attack vector,
to be used by attackers to remotely control a vulnerable OS.
"Like history has shown, complexity and features add to remote exploitability
Latest PDF features do the same."
Even password protected security software is vulnerable.
The exploit will hook certain functions of the av scanner
disabling it or simply crashing the software.
I know Kaspersky has a good protection against this,
I hope avast has too,
polonus
