Adobe Solves Issues with its PageMaker 7.0 Software

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 03 Nov 2008

According to an Adobe Systems Inc. security advisory, there were two security holes in its PageMaker software that needed plugging. I used the past tense because these two vulnerabilities have been beautifully addressed by Adobe. Now if only they could get cracking on the third one, one could use their software program with more confidence.

The vulnerabilities in question, which have been dubbed CVE-2007-6432 and CVE-2007-5394, affect the following platforms: Adobe PageMaker 7.0.1 and PageMaker 7.0.2. What are the risks of using the previously mentioned programs without patching? To put it simply, someone with malicious intent could assume control of your system by exploiting said vulnerabilities from a remote location. Yes, the vulnerabilities are exploitable and they do allow remote code execution.

The third vulnerability that I was talking about, entitled CVE-2007-6021, although acknowledged by Adobe, has yet to be patched. The only means of protecting yourself is to upgrade (so as to at least deal with the first two security holes), and be weary of PageMaker files that originate from untrusted sources.

Just to put things into perspective, Adobe uses a 4 tier rating system: low, moderate, important and critical. Adobe has attributed the latter rating to the three vulnerabilities. Secunia, company that specializes in providing security software solutions, has gone one further and categorized them as “highly critical”.

There is one additional means of staying protected: giving up on PageMaker 7.0. Adobe has let go of the 23 year old software (initially released back in 1985) and moved on, so why no do the same? So forget about PageMaker 7.0, which no longer benefits from maintenance support, and switch to Adobes InDesign CS4 (Creative Suite 4) which shipped out in the middle of October, 2008.


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