Tool for creating booby-trapped PDFs made public

Freelance security researcher Claes Spett has made available a tool he dubbed “PDF Exploit Generator,” which allows penetration testers – but also malicious attackers – to create a booby-trapped PDF in a matter of minutes.

“The tool weaves existing exploits into PDFs, allowing attacks against Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 8.x prior to 8.2.1 and 9.x before 9.3.1,” Darren Pauli explained. “Users can insert their own URL pointers into the program, which then spits out an exploited PDF.”

The exploits used are old, and most – if not all – security solutions will detect them. Still, there are many users who don’t use any, and they could be successfully targeted.

Spett has apparently created the tool while developing an exploit kit aimed to be used by penetration testers.

Users are advised to use the PDF Exploit Generator responsibly, but of course, nothing can prevents malicious attackers from using it, too.