Enterprise admins who manage machines engaged in workflows that use persistent global variables (Windows and Macintosh) or custom JavaScripts (Windows only).
Due to Adobe’s high interest in security, changes to existing Acrobat and Adobe Reader functionality are periodically released to further strengthen the product’s resistance to malicious attacks. As part of this effort, 10.1.1 introduces changes to the JavaScript feature that stores global variables and executes user-defined scripts.
Prior to 10.1.1, end users could place JavaScript files in %ApplicationData%\Adobe\(product name)\(version)\JavaScripts, and these files would execute automatically on application startup. For example, IT might place a JS file for modifying the product user interface by hiding or adding menu items on an Windows XP machine in C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\JavaScripts. Additionally, the folder contains glob.js and glob.settings.js, two files which the product can read and write to when storing global variables.
By design, Acrobat processes do not write to the %ApplicationData%\ Acrobat\Privileged\10.0 folder. Additionally, sandboxed processes are specifically prohibited from writing to that folder. Thus, the most secure operation involves enabling Protected View in Acrobat and Protected Mode in Reader and thereby sandboxing all processes. Additionally, 10.1.1 introduces the following changes:
Note: This is a Windows-only change. Also, the change does not impact the behavior of C:\Program Files\Adobe\(product name and version)\(product name)\JavaScripts.
If you have not stored variables as persistent global variables or placed custom JavaScripts in the affected directories, then you can ignore this change. However, if you have done either, maintain the integrity of your workflows by doing the following:
1. For Acrobat, you can either:
Note: For Adobe Reader, you can only use the latter method since the JavaScript console is not available unless you have enabled it as described at http://blogs.adobe.com/pdfdevjunkie/2008/10/how_to_use_the_javascript_debu.html.
2. Manually execute the JavaScript setPersistent method on all global variables to ensure they are correctly migrated to the new format. For example, run the following JavaScript in the console:
for (var name in global) global.setPersistent("global."+name, true);
Copy all user-created JavaScript files from %APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\JavaScripts to %APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\Privileged\10.0\JavaScripts.
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