Doesn't the antivirus check PDFs? The fault lies with Adobe

PDF files are widely used for sending and receiving documents and, for this reason, potential attackers could use them to carry malware on the network. Apparently, however, anti-virus software is unable to scan these files, and Adobe is to blame.

Indeed, researchers at cybersecurity firms Minerva Labs said:

Since March 2022 we have seen a gradual increase in Adobe Acrobat Reader processes that attempt to query which DLLs belonging to security products are loaded into it by acquiring a DLL handle.

Apparently , Acrobat checks to block the DLLs of 30 IT security products on your device, including those of well-known companies such as Bitdefender, Avast, Trend Micro, Symantec, MalwareBytes, ESET, Kaspersky, F-Secure, Sophos and Emsisoft.




Asked about this by colleagues at Bleeping Computer, Adobe replied:

We are aware of reports that some security tool DLLs are incompatible with Adobe Acrobat's use of CEF, a Chromium-based engine with a tight sandbox design, and can cause stability issues . We are currently working with the manufacturers of these software to resolve this issue and to ensure proper functionality with Acrobat's CEF sandbox design in the future.