Unexpected features in Acrobat 7 [LWN.net]

Unexpected features in Acrobat 7

Posted Apr 1, 2005 4:05 UTC (Fri) by rro (guest, #5155)
Parent article: Unexpected features in Acrobat 7

I'm running privoxy, an Internet proxy filtering application. It is lighter-weight than squid, since all I wanted to do is block advertisements in web pages. However, I believe it may have the capability for telling my Linux system not to communicate with remoteapproach.com. Wouldn't that accomplish the feedback blocking from Acrobat Reader 7 without disabling JavaScript (repeatedly)? Privoxy runs on Linux, OS X and Windows, so it may be a fine solution for all these platforms, and maybe I could rein in Acrobat Reader 7 on my OS X systems too.

Anyone know the privoxy configuration change to put this into place?

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General problem needs a general solution

Posted Apr 1, 2005 14:39 UTC (Fri) by kevinbsmith (guest, #4778) [Link]

Even if your proxy does block RemoteApproach itself, it won't block other similar "attacks". RemoteApproach could register a new domain every month. Competitors may spring up. Someone may create a tool that allows PDF authors to embed tracking that goes to an arbitrary site of the author's choosing.

Since the javascript plugin is a general tool, it is best blocked with a general approach.

I don't use acroread myself, but I will recommend to my friends that they disable acroread plugins entirely (as described in posts above), at least as a starting point. I wonder what other privacy and/or security vulnerabilities lurk within those (closed source) plugins.