Zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player

Buffer overflow
CVE-2014-0515

A sample of the first exploit was detected on April 14, while a sample of the second came on April 16. The first exploit was initially recorded by KSN on April 9, when it was detected by a generic heuristic signature.

The disclosed vulnerability was actively exploited and relates to attack via the website of Syrian Ministry of Justice in September, 2013.

Known malware:

Exploit:SWF/CVE-2014-0515

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2014040901 - Remote code execution in Adobe Flash Player

Vulnerable component: Adobe Flash Player

CVE-ID: CVE-2014-0515

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-119 - Memory corruption

Description:

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

The weakness exists due to buffer overflow, caused by improper bounds checking by the pixel bender component. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted SWF file, trick the victim into opening 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:

Animal Farm targeting multiple users in Syria

The APT group allegedly of European origin has conducted a watering-hole attack in Syria. According to the report of Kaspersly Lab, the group deployed the Casper Trojan via Adobe Flash Player zero-day vulnerability CVE-2014-0515.

Public Exploits:

- Adobe Flash Player - Shader Buffer Overflow (Metasploit) [Exploit-DB]

External links:

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb14-13.html
https://securelist.com/blog/incidents/59399/new-flash-player-0-day-cve-2014-0515-used-in-watering-ho...
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/analyzing-cve-2014-0515-the-recent-flash-...
https://www.symantec.com/security_response/attacksignatures/detail.jsp?asid=27555
https://www.symantec.com/security_response/attacksignatures/detail.jsp?asid=27552
https://www.zscaler.com/blogs/research/nuclear-exploit-kit-and-flash-cve-2014-0515
http://54.204.81.18/news/stories/39397-blog-new-flash-player-0-day-cve-2014-0515-used-in-watering-ho...
http://www.securityweek.com/adobe-patches-flash-player-zero-day-used-watering-hole-attacks
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/04/adobe-update-nixes-flash-player-zero-day/#more-25786

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.