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Microsoft has been helping Adobe develop a sandbox similar to the Protected View in Office 2010. Adobe Reader Protected Mode, a sandboxing technology based on Microsoft's Practical Windows Sandboxing technique, is a new mitigation feature scheduled for the next major version release of Adobe Reader. In addition to working with the Microsoft Office security team, Adobe also learned from the Google Chrome team as well as third-party consultancies and other external groups that have sandboxing knowledge and experience.

Adobe Reader Protected Mode will be enabled by default and will ensure that all operations required to display a PDF file to the user are run in a restricted manner inside a sandbox. Actions not permitted in the sandboxed environment, such as writing to the user's temporary folder or launching an attachment inside a PDF file using an external application, are funneled through a "broker process," which has a strict set of policies for what is allowed and what is not. This first release will sandbox all "write" calls, mitigating the risk of exploits that seek to install malware on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7. In future releases of Adobe Reader, the company hopes to extend the sandbox to include read-only activities to protect against attackers seeking to read sensitive information from the user's computer.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...campaig n=rss

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