Zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player

Use-after-free error
CVE-2014-8439

An Adobe Flash vulnerability was discovered in October and promptly patched. The exploits in the Nuclear and Angler kits were detected by the French researcher Kafeine shortly after the company released an update on Oct.14. Despite a patch on 14, October 2014, the vulnerability was not completely mitigated. The vulnerability was patched again in November, 25.


Known malware:

Troj/SWFExp-CD.
Exploit kits: Angler, Nuclear, and Astrum.

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2014101405 - Multiple vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player

Vulnerable component: Adobe Flash Player

CVE-ID: CVE-2014-8439

CVSSv3 score: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:H/RL:O/RC:C

CWE-ID: CWE-416 - Use After Free

Description:

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system.

The weakness exists due to use-after-free error when processing .swf files. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted Web site, trick the victim into visiting it, trigger memory corruption and execute arbitrary code with privileges of the current user.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability results in arbitrary code execution on the vulnerable system.

Note: the vulnerability was being actively exploited.

External links:

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb14-22.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb14-26.html
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mmpc/2014/12/02/an-interesting-case-of-the-cve-2014-8439-exploit...
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/cve-2014-8439-vulnerability-trend-micro-s...
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/cve-2014-8439-vulnerability-trend-micro-s...
https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2015/01/a_different_exploit.html
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/11/28/adobe-publishes-out-of-band-flash-update-booster-dose-fo...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2852412/adobe-tries-again-to-fix-flash-vulnerability.html
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/20976/20141126/adobe-releases-patch-to-re-fix-flash-player-vulnera...

About zero-day vulnerabilities

Zero-day vulnerability is an undisclosed vulnerability in software that hackers can exploit to compromise computer programs, gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, penetrate networks, etc. We consider vulnerability a zero-day when there is no solution provided from software vendor and the vulnerability is being actively exploited by malicious actors.

Zero-day candidate is a potential zero-day vulnerability in software which might have been used in targeted attacks, however there is no evidence to support this suggestion.