According to several reports by anti-virus vendors, criminals have attempted to exploit an unpatched hole in Adobe Reader disclosed about two weeks ago to infect Windows PCs. The relevant malware includes the particularly dangerous ZeuS bot. The specially crafted documents are apparently sent to users as email attachments.
The “Launch Actions/Launch File” function in Adobe Reader allows the execution of scripts or EXE files embedded in PDFs. Although Adobe Reader asks users to agree to the execution of the file, this dialogue can be designed in such a way that users have no idea they may be allowing an infection in to their systems.