Zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player
Memory corruption
CVE-2016-4171
The vulnerability was reported by Anton Ivanovn of Kaspersky.
Used by ScarCruft hacking team in Operation Daybreak and Operation Erebus as suggested by Kaspersky Lab.
It has been used in targeted attacks carried out by a new ScarCruft APT group operating primarily against high-profile victims in China, South Korea, India, Russia, Nepal, Romania, and Kuwait.
Vulnerability details
Advisory: SB2016061401 - Remote code execution in Adobe Flash Player
Vulnerable component: Adobe Flash Player
CVE-ID: CVE-2016-4171
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 boundary error when handling .swf files. 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:
Operation Daybreak
The Operation Daybreak is a malicious APT campaign that has being launched in March 2016. According to Kaspersky Lab, the campaign was executed by the ScarCruft APT.
The attackers were using spear-phishing emails to target high profile victims. The victim received an email with a malicious link to a compromised website. The compromised website contained an exploit kit, which performed a couple of browser checks before redirecting the visitor to a server controlled by the attackers hosted in Poland.
External links:
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb16-18.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsa16-03.html
https://securelist.com/blog/research/75082/cve-2016-4171-adobe-flash-zero-day-used-in-targeted-attac...
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/48400/hacking/cve-2016-4171-flash-0-day.html
http://www.securityweek.com/flash-zero-day-exploited-targeted-attacks
https://community.norton.com/en/blogs/security-covered-norton/critical-adobe-flash-player-vulnerabil...
https://threatpost.com/scarcruft-apt-group-used-latest-flash-zero-day-in-two-dozen-attacks/118642/
http://zerosecurity.org/2016/06/flash-zero-day-cve-2016-4171
http://neurogadget.net/2016/06/21/hackers-exploiting-critical-adobe-flash-player-vulnerability/33701
https://www.scmagazine.com/adobe-patches-critical-zero-day-vulnerability-in-flash-player/article/529...
http://activecypher.com/cve-2016-4171-another-flash-zero-day-exploited-in-targeted-attacks/
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/06/15/critical-flash-vulnerability-is-being-exploited-in-the-w...
https://www.beyondtrust.com/blog/critical-zero-day-vulnerability-cve-2016-4171-basic-mitigation/
https://arstechnica.com/security/2016/06/critical-adobe-flash-bug-under-active-attack-currently-has-...
http://wccftech.com/flash-zero-day-vulnerability-exploited-in-the-wild/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/adobe-exploit-scarcruft/
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2461612/new-threat-uses-flash-zero-day-to-attack-big-busine...
http://thecharlestendellshow.com/scarcruft-apt-group-exploited-flash-zero-day-in-high-profile-attack...
https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/adobe-flash-alert-0-day-exploit-for-vulnerability-in-the-wi...
http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/adobe-flings-flash-fix-for-fresh-apt-target-a-9207