3.6 FAQs
Does Adobe have plans for Protected Mode in Acrobat?
Yes. With the release of 10.1, Acrobat's Protected View is a sandbox mode similar to the Protected View
feature in Microsoft Office 2010.
Is there a reason why Acrobat X is not sandboxed vs. Reader X?
In order to reduce our attack surface, and most effectively thwart malicious activity, we always follow the
common security strategy of protecting the greatest number of end-users as expediently as possible.
Is Reader X on Mac OSX less vulnerable?
While Protected Mode is not available for Macintosh, Adobe has not seen any targeted attacks against
Unix and Mac Reader so far.
Is Adobe Reader X sandboxed on Unix and Mac?
While sandboxing technologies do exist on the Unix and Mac platforms, we have not seen targeted
attacks against Unix and Mac Reader so far and therefore it's not a priority at this point in time.
What configuration are not supported?
For a current list of issues, see
http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/protected-mode-troubleshooting-reader.html
.
Does the fact that Protected Mode invoke two Reader processes affect updating and patching?
No. The patching mechanism will remain the same as before. Broker and sandboxed processes do not
get patched separately.
Is the Reader Sandbox similar to the low integrity Protected Mode of Internet Explorer?
No. Despite the name similarities, Reader's Protected Mode the sandbox we have implemented is a more
effective at mitigating threats in applications on desktop windows than just running a process at low
integrity. While our sandbox indeed runs at at low integrity, it is a much more constrained computing
environment.
Is Remote Desktop Services supported?
Yes. Remote Desktop Services (formerly known as Terminal Services) is supported.
What is the difference between Microsoft's Application Virtualization Sandbox technology and
Reader X's Protected Mode?
Section 3 Protected Mode
Application Security Guide
Page 16
Section 3 Protected Mode
