Zero-day vulnerability in InPage

Buffer overflow
CVE-2017-12824

Exploit code was used in targeted attacks against financial institutions in Asia. Victims of these attacks have been observed in U.K., U.S, Myanmar, Sri-Lanka and Uganda. The sector for the victims include both financial and governmental institutions.

Attacks are similar to attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in the Hangul Word Processor against government targets in South Korea.

UPDATE
Researchers from Palo Alto Networks published a write-up on November 2 2017, describing 3 latest exploits, leveraging this particular vulnerability.

The decoy documents used by the InPage exploits in the latest attacks suggest that the targets are likely to be politically or militarily motivated. They contained subjects such as intelligence reports and political situations related to India, the Kashmir region, or terrorism being used as lure documents.

Known malware:

Zeus-type malware
CONFUCIUS_B

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2016112302 - Remote code execution in InPage

Vulnerable component: InPage

CVE-ID: CVE-2017-12824

CVSSv3 score: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 vulnerability exists within text processor when parsing .inp files. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted .inp file, trick the victim to open it and execute arbitrary code on the target system with privileges of the current user.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may result in full system compromise.

Note: this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against financial institutions in Asia. The latest attack report is dated November 3, 2017.

External links:

https://securelist.com/blog/research/76717/inpage-zero-day-exploit-used-to-attack-financial-institut...
https://threatpost.com/inpage-zero-day-used-in-attacks-against-banks/122112/
http://www.securityweek.com/organizations-asia-targeted-inpage-zero-day
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/53725/intelligence/inpage-zero-day.html
http://techgenix.com/banks-hacked-via-inpage/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/24/attackers_use_yearsold_software_zero_day_to_pop_asia_pac_ba...
http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2016/11/asian-and-african-banks-are-attacked-using-a-zero-day-vulnerabil...
https://cyware.com/news/organizations-in-asia-targeted-with-inpage-zero-day-37293662
https://frederickdamasus.com/2016/11/zero-day-attacks-african-asian-banks.html/
https://thetechportal.com/2016/11/24/banks-attacked-zero-day-kaspersky/
http://technewsdir.com/asian-and-african-banks-attacked-using-a-zero-day-vulnerability-kaspersky
https://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2017/11/unit42-recent-inpage-exploits-lead-multiple-malw...

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.