Adobe issued a security bulletin about a critical vulnerability that could compromise user systems and promised a fix next week. An exploit already exists as an Excel spreadsheet with Flash embedded.
Adobe will be fixing a critical vulnerability in its Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat and Reader X. There are already exploits in the wild for Flash, Adobe said.

When exploited, this critical vulnerability could crash the system or allow the attacker to take complete control of the affected system, Adobe said in a security advisory March 14. Attackers were using a malicious Flash file embedded in a Microsoft Excel file that is attached to an e-mail message, Adobe said.

The vulnerability affects the latest versions of Adobe Flash Player for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and Chrome. It also exists in the authplay.dll file that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat X (10.0.1), as well as earlier 10.x and 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh. Adobe Reader 9.x for UNIX, Adobe Reader for Android, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are not affected, Adobe said.

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