Adobe Acrobat Reader: Possible Security Vulnerability When Acrobat JavaScript Is Enabled

It is possible to have security vulnerability in Adobe’s Acrobat Reader if the Acrobat Javascript option is enable.

When the option is enabled and you open a crafted PDF file with Adobe Reader that allows JavaScript execution, your computer will be exposed to security risk – hacker may able to access your valuable data from your hard disk.

JavaScript is a scripting language that is tend to be safe to be used in web browsers due to its limitation to access to client computer. Since it is safe, your antivirus software may not able to detect a pdf file with Javascript is actually contain an virus.

To prevent the security vulnerability, you should now check whether your Adobe Acrobat’s Javascript option is enabled. If it is enabled, disable it as soon as possible. The default setting for Acrobat Javascript is set to enabled for most of the Acrobat Reader version.

To disable the option, open your Acrobat Reader application, click on Edit -> Preferences and a window will pop up. Select the “JavaScript” option from your left and make sure the “Enable Acrobat JavaScript” option is un-ticked.

Thanks for Walker for heading up the Acrobat JavaScript issue.