ml> the problem, though, is that those old versions have security holes so
 ml> large that you can fly a squadron of F-86's thru them... things like
 ml> javascript execution and bugs in the rendering engine that allow
 ml> malformed documents to be loaded and overrun the buffers which then lead
 ml> to code execution that you have no visual indication is even taking
 ml> place...

 JP>    I posted just now, that I D/L'd a new reader. I wonder if it is
 JP> also subject to invasions ?

i don't know... i only know that adobe stuff has a lot of holes and has had
some of them for years... flash and pdf are both used as infiltration
mechanisms with pdf being much more common...

i know that in the IDS/IPS stuff i work with, we are always looking inside
pdf files for critters and their code... have you ever gotten a surprising
"spam" from fedex or ups in your email? many of those were
carrying pdfs full of critters... what they do is carry the critter code
that checks what adobe, java and a few other packages you have installed...
they already know what holes they are looking for so the critter then hits
the 'net at their special site with a url that tells them what apps you
have... they then serve up the critters that drive thru the holes in those
apps and infect you with one or more of their own tools... once that's
done, they have control over your machine and can update their tools or use
your machine in their botnets or even just wait in their tools to send them
the info on your activities and the keylogger data they record as you log
into your accounts and access your bank accounts...

the above can also happen just by viewing an advertisement on some clean
and legitimate site if they are lucky enough to get an ad campaign running
on an advertising network without it being vetted or looked at too
closely... this happened in the last months and sites like abc.com,
nfl.com, nbc.com and other really huge brand name sites were displaying
these ads and infesting many of their users... i remember the huge flurry
of activity as we moved to catch these attacks and get the ads pulled from
the advertising network's servers...

)\/(ark