Zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player

Memory corruption
CVE-2012-1535

The vulnerability was reported by Alexander Gavrun. The exploit was used by Aurora Group.

Known malware:

Exploit:SWF/CVE-2012-1535.A.

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2012081401 - Remote code execution in Adobe Flash Player

Vulnerable component: Adobe Flash Player

CVE-ID: CVE-2012-1535

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 parsing malicious files. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted Flash (.swf) file embedded in a Microsoft Word (.doc) 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 Aurora

Operation Aurora is a series of cyber attacks conducted since mid-2009. Such name was given by Dmitri Alperovitch of McAfee.

The operation was discovered by Google in January, 2010 and is considered to have Chinese origin.

The hackers targeted not only Google but also Yahoo, Symantec, Juniper Networks, Adobe, Northrop Grumman ╨╕ Dow Chemical.

Symantec identified the group behind the operation "Elderwood", Dell Secureworks - "Beijing Group".

Public Exploits:

- Adobe Flash Player 11.3 - Font Parsing Code Execution (Metasploit) [Exploit-DB]

External links:

https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-08/msg00010.html
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb12-18.html
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mmpc/2012/08/28/a-technical-analysis-on-cve-2012-1535-adobe-flas...
https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/cve-2012-1535-adobe-flash-player-vulnerability-exploited-mult...
https://www.symantec.com/security_response/attacksignatures/detail.jsp?asid=25878
https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/labs_global/cve-2012-1535
http://contagiodump.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/cve-2012-1535-samples-and-info.html
https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/adobe-flash-update-counters-cve-2012-1535/
http://blog.talosintel.com/2012/08/cve-2012-1535-flash-0-day-in-wild.html
http://www.digital4rensics.com/blog/2012/08/brief-osint-review-for-cve-2012-1535-attacks/
https://www.alienvault.com/blogs/labs-research/cve-2012-1535-adobe-flash-being-exploited-in-the-wild
http://www.ehackingnews.com/2012/08/cve-2012-1535-adobe-flash-player-exploit.html
http://thehackernews.com/2012/09/operation-aurora-other-zero-day-attacks.html

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.