Tuesday, October 2, 2007

The Most Dangerous File Format?

The newest trend in spam has been the use of new file types attached to spam messages, the favorite format being Adobe's PDF. It has been especially popular in spreading pump-and-dump stock spam. But don't worry! Adobe recently sought to reassure users with this statement: PDF is no more able to embed malware on an unsuspecting user's system than any other typical e-mail attachment.

This may well be true; many typical e-mail attachments are capable of spreading malware. In fact, PDFs were probably chosen by spammers because Word files are infamous as vehicles for malware. It is true that there are no known examples of PDF spam being used to spread malware (though past vulnerabilities in Acrobat Reader let PDFs compromise a PC). PDF spam represents an annoyance more than anything. For now, at least.

Source:- PCmag.com

No comments: