Patch Tuesday is for Adobe too

Stephen Withers
Friday, 09 April 2010 16:50

Business IT - Security

Adobe's next quarterly update - timed to coincide with Microsoft's monthly security release - will cover Acrobat and Reader.

Details are understandably sketchy at this stage, but Adobe has announced that critical updates for Acrobat and Reader will be released on Tuesday April 13 (US time).

The updates will apply to Adobe Reader 9.3.1 for Windows, Macintosh and Unix; Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1 for Windows and Macintosh; and Adobe Reader 8.2.1 and Acrobat 8.2.1 for Windows and Macintosh.

This will be the first time Adobe uses the new update technology that has been beta tested in out of cycle updates in January and February this year. Built into the current versions of Acrobat and Reader for Windows and Mac OS X, the technology can automatically download and install updates without requiring user intervention.

Windows users have three choices (automatically install updates, automatically download updates but let the user choose when to install, or do not download updates automatically), but for some reason Mac users have only two (automatically download updates but let the user choose when to install, or do not download updates automatically).

Adobe has no plans to activate the automatic update option without prior user consent, but the company believes that is the best choice for most end users.