These days the Adobe is the major target for the exploitation of vulnerabilities in the Reader. This has prompted the company to introduce a “protected mode” in keeping with the interests of the users.
The next version is expected to come loaded with this sandbox reader to save users from the security woes. The protected mode will be turned on as a default in the upcoming version. The only problem that remains is that the release of the next version is not yet decided and so the readers will have to wait for a considerable time for it. The most at risk is the Reader for Windows. Hence it is going to be the first that will be protected as the most vicious of the attacks are targeted here. Adobe took the assistance of the teams that designed the sandbox for Microsoft and Google with their Reader as the expertise in such programming is scarce.
In the Adobe Reader the Protected Mode doesn’t stop vulnerabilities from being found or exploited; it limits their severity by limiting the utmost harm that they can cause. Though the mode is not perfect still it can go a long way in solving many of the problems. Reader and all plug-in code will run in the sandbox. But all the major tasks will be run by the broker process. Now broker process is very well scrutinized and checks are policies before indulging in any activity that it assumes to be dangerous.
If there is any attempt of an attack on the Reader the exploit code will only run in the sandbox. To cause actual damage the attacker will have to exploit the code in broker process. But this will be not be very easy because as stated before the broker process is very small and heavily scrutinized. The approach adopted by the Adobe is that the flow of files either to Acrobat or to the Reader will be dependant to the origins of the file’ quite similar to the process that Microsoft follows. Only the files coming through trusted workflows will go to Acrobat
Previously similar type of security measure in the form of sandbox architecture has been seen in the Google Chrome and Microsoft Office 2010. Office 2010 uses a similar approach, opening files in its limited “Protected View” if the file comes from the Internet or some other untrusted location. Even Internet Explorer 7 and 8’s Protected Mode, when run on Windows Vista and 7, is similar in running web sites in a specially-limited user context.