Zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player

Stack-based buffer overflow
CVE-2014-9163

The vulnerability was discovered by the researcher ‘bilou’, who reported the bug through HP’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI).

Has been used in a watering hole attack against US Defense and Financial Services firms, where it was hosted on the compromised Forbes.com website.

Known malware:

Trojan.Win32.Bergard.A.

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2014120901 - Multiple vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player

Vulnerable component: Adobe Flash Player

CVE-ID: CVE-2014-9163

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-121 - Stack-based buffer overflow

Description:

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

The weakness exists due to stack-based buffer overflow 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.

Known APT campaigns:

US Defense and Financial Services firms breach

The attack reffers to a Chinese actor group Codoso (according to iSIGHT Partners), Sunshop Group (according to FireEye).

External links:

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb14-27.html
https://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2015-011509-4745-99
http://www.securityweek.com/adobe-patches-flash-player-vulnerability-exploited-wild
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Chinese-Hackers-Target-Forbes-com-In-Watering-Hole-Attack-472871.shtm...
http://www.cso.com.au/article/562228/adobe-patches-flash-zero-day-under-attack/
http://blog.malcovery.com/forbes.com-adobe-flash-player-and-your-email
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/33417/cyber-crime/chinese-hackers-hit-forbes.html
https://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/pwned-in-7-seconds-hackers-use-flash-and-ie-to-target-forbe...

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.