Adobe Reader X: doesn’t that sound like a secret agent’s name or something? Some people think that the program’s sandbox module prevented a couple of security breaches. However, researchers are not sure whether it was the software itself that prevented the PDF exploits or something else which triggered the defense mechanism.

Last couple of years ago, Reader X went through a major upgrade. A significant part of this upgrade was a “Sandbox” module, which was basically designed to protect users from PDF file exploits. It just happens so that many a times, Adobe users are tricked into opening files with .Pdf extension. These files have a lot more than just a couple of lines. Sometimes malicious scripts, Trojans or tid bits of viruses are embedded in the PDF document.

Recently an attack campaign was launched against Adobe Reader X community. Those who got out safe are already thanking Adobe developers for protecting their hides. Meanwhile, Adobe staff members have a reason to believe that something else caused the prevention of those attacks.

Chris Greamo is the head of a research lab at Fairfax Va. He said, “I really don’t intend to take the credit away from Adobe but it appears that maybe the Reader X Sandbox wasn’t the only thing that thwarted the security breach.”

On the other side of the globe, in U.K, a security firm tried and tested Adobe Reader X’s sandbox and reached out with the conclusion that the program stood tall against most of the malicious PDF document exploits.

The newest malformed PDF exploit was designed to patch the Reader X security files, and execute the inbuilt viruses. Greamo and his fellow team members are still a little confused because the virus works perfectly fine on Adobe Reader v8 and 9. Why isn’t it working on Reader X? They think that the malware had some sort of loophole in it, which prevented it to properly execute against targeted applications.