Adobe issues security alert over 'critical' flaw

Adobe has warned of a 'critical' vulnerability in its Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat software.

The company said in a security advisory that the problem affects Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems.

Also affected is the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows, Macintosh and Unix.

Adobe confirmed that the vulnerability is already being exploited, but said that the Flash Player 10.1 Release Candidate does not appear to be vulnerable.

Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are also confirmed as not vulnerable, and users of other versions are advised that deleting, renaming or removing access to the authplay.dll file within Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x could remove some of the issues affecting those versions.

However, Adobe warned that this could lead to software crashes when trying to view SWF files.

The firm has not yet released a patch, but promised that one will be made available as soon as possible.