Secure Adobe Reader
This is not a silver bullet for Adobe Reader security, but it will prevent the current most popular ways of being exploited. Basically, it will just disable Javascript and Flash within Reader. Personally, I think it's ridiculous that Adobe even added this functionality to PDF's.
NOTE: Do not do this if the PDF's you need to utilize require this functionality.
Disabling Javascript can be done in a couple of different ways: either the settings within reader or through the registry.
- Go to Edit, Preferences Then in the left-pane, navigate to JavaScript. The right-side of the window will update to JavaScript preferences. You should uncheck Enable Acrobat JavaScript.
reg add "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\#.#\JSPrefs" /v bEnableJS /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Where #.# is the version of Reader you are using.
Disabling Flash requires the deleting/renaming of a couple of files.
On Microsoft Windows, delete or rename these files:
"%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader <version_#>\Reader\authplay.dll" "%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader <version_#>\Reader\rt3d.dll"
For Apple Mac OS X, delete or rename these files:
"/Applications/Adobe Reader 9/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Frameworks/AuthPlayLib.bundle" "/Applications/Adobe Reader 9/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Frameworks/Adobe3D.framework"
For GNU/Linux delete or rename these files (locations may vary among distributions):
"/opt/Adobe/Reader9/Reader/intellinux/lib/libauthplay.so" "/opt/Adobe/Reader9/Reader/intellinux/lib/librt3d.so"
– Main.FredPettis - 2010-12-13