People using Adobe Reader and its PDF-reading technology may be exposed to vulnerabilities, it has been revealed.

A report by computing firm Core Security Technologies (CST) revealed that internet users could manipulate a PDF file with malicious JavaScript-based coding to exploit vulnerable computer systems in both homes and businesses, according to SC Magazine.

The file, once opened by the innocent party, will infect a computer and allow the attacker to gain user privileges if they are running Adobe Reader.

However, the new resource added that the most recent release of the reader, June's version nine, was not vulnerable to the problem.

Chief technology officer at CST Ivan Arce said that "Adobe's inclusion of a fully-fledged JavaScript engine introduces the same types of implementation bugs commonly found in such sophisticated client side programs".

Adobe was founded in December 1982 by Charles Geschke and John Warnock, with Adobe Reader now installed on over 700 million computers worldwide.

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